S01E07 – “Compersion” ft. TT Baum

OVERVIEW:

What’s the opposite of jealousy? Enter compersion—a radical concept that could transform the way we experience love, sex, and intimacy. In this episode, Dr. Trevor Hoppe sits down with TT Baum, a sacred intimate with over 20 years of experience in sex work, sex education, and tantric practice. Together, they dive into the art of connected sex, the healing power of touch, and how compersion can bring more joy into our relationships. Along the way, TT shares stories of sexual exploration, the importance of vulnerability, and what it really means to have FUN in bed.

TRANSCRIPT:

Trevor Hoppe (00:09)
Hey, welcome to the Best Gay Sex Podcast. I am your host, Dr. Trevor Hoppe. Today’s episode is about compersion. Compersion? Never heard of it? You would not be alone. Little bit of a GRE or SAT level kind of word there, but I’ll explain it using my husband’s trick, which I think helps for clarity’s sake. What’s the opposite of up?

down, right? Yeah, exactly. Now imagine the opposite of let’s say good.

Bad. Yea, exactly. Two for two. Now what’s the opposite of jealousy? Uh… jealousy? What do you mean? Like, kind of the math lady look in your head, like, “Uh… opposite of jealousy? I don’t know.” Do we have a word for that? It turns out we do and it is compersion. I’ll explain it this way. Imagine

the love of your life is telling you a story that last night, guess what? They had the best sex of their life. my God. They did this position, that position. It was so hot and they were so hot. We live in a society where our knee jerk reaction or impulse might be to feel some kind of way about that, right? A little bit of negativity, maybe a little possessiveness. Why wasn’t it me that you were experiencing that with, right? That’s jealousy, that dark impulse. Compersion is the opposite of that.

Imagine feeling joy, positivity, love for that person when they tell you that story instead of feeling possessive, you feel like, my God, that’s great. Good for you. I’m really happy for you. I love that journey for you. That’s compersion And today’s guest wants to live in a world with a lot more of that and a lot less jealousy. And TT Baum comes to that perspective from over two decades of experience, not just as a sex educator,

not just as a practitioner, but a kind of fusion hybrid role of both that he calls being a sacred intimate. Yes, it’s a little bit of sex work. Sometimes it’s a little bit of massage. Sometimes it’s a little bit of therapy, kind of all rolled into one. And I will let Titi explain it, because he will surely do a better job than me. So let’s listen in.

Trevor Hoppe (02:27)
T .T. Baum, welcome to the Best Gay Sex Podcast.

TT (02:31)
Thank you. Happy to be here, Trevor.

Trevor Hoppe (02:33)
I am so excited to have you on. I have so many questions and so many directions because your work is so rich and fabulous and interesting to me. But before we get to the current state of affairs in your work and your life, I like to sort of take a trip down memory lane and kind of connect readers to your upbringing. So for folks who don’t know, kind of tell us a little bit about where you grew up and what was that like as a young queer person?

TT (02:50)
Mm -hmm.

so I was born and raised like half time in the Northwestern quadrant of Pennsylvania and the Allegheny mountains. what my, some of my family who escaped affectionately referred to as little Appalachia. and, then when I was eight or nine, we moved to, Northeastern Ohio. So that whole kind of like.

like Allegheny Mountains, Great Lakes region is where I grew up and mostly small towns. The town that we ended up landing in as a kid had 10 ,000 people, I think had a population of 10 ,000, which isn’t huge. It’s much bigger than where my parents came from, but it’s definitely by no means of what I’m familiar with now. Was it was it any kind of big city? The closest big city to where I grew up was Cleveland, Ohio.

Trevor Hoppe (03:42)
Wow. Yeah.

TT (03:57)
And keep in mind it was so it was rural it was You know mountain folks it was the 80s 70s and 80s and I was also raised Catholic so the combination of all of that kind of small -town mentality and

Trevor Hoppe (03:57)
Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

TT (04:20)
the weird schizophrenic bipolar nature of what it means to grow up Catholic or be raised Catholic really messed me up a lot as a kid. I thought I had a I thought I had a vocation. I thought I was going to be a priest until I was 13. Even

Trevor Hoppe (04:35)
my gosh, wow.

TT (04:37)
Even after I knew what was going on, I really thought, okay, I’m gonna be a priest and that’s gonna take care of it. Because those were the tracks, right? If you weren’t gonna get married and have kids, which I didn’t think I was going to do, then you were gonna become a priest or a nun. Yeah, those are your options, get over it. In hindsight, I probably should have done that because I would have gotten a great education for free and then I could have just quit like a lot of my friends did.

Trevor Hoppe (04:52)
There are two options, I like it.

Hahaha.

Ha ha ha.

TT (05:06)
But being a queer kid in that time

and in that region was really confusing, particularly as somebody who was also really embodied. Like if I look back, like I really enjoyed my body from a very young age. I liked to explore it, I liked to use it, I liked to feel the pleasure of it. I was in this, I was also in a family that for,

for where they grew up and how they were raised, wanted very badly to be very progressive. So there was a lot of freedom in our household to ask questions and to try to have dialogue about things. And as hard as they tried, there were still elements and components of shaming and phobias that came out about.

what different things meant to different people in the household. So I remember asking my first question about sex to my mom when I was five. And she was really good about encapsulating what happens with your body into a context that a five -year -old would understand.

Trevor Hoppe (06:12)
Five.

Wow, that’s impressive.

TT (06:28)
So

yeah, I was very precocious.

Trevor Hoppe (06:31)
And you were asking this, I assume, just generically, not as like a queer person asking about sex, I assume.

TT (06:40)
no, yeah, just generically curiosity of a kid. I mean, one of the, one of the, so the specific story, we were in a small house. We had one bathroom. everybody shared the bathroom and, I went into the bathroom to get ready for school one morning and I saw a pair of underwear draped over the side of the bathtub.

Trevor Hoppe (06:51)
Mmm. Mm -hmm.

TT (07:03)
with blood on it. And I didn’t know what was going on and I was freaked out because I thought somebody had gotten hurt. And I remember asking my mom, why is there blood on that underwear? And she explained to me about menstruation. She explained to me about what happens if people, I knew what intercourse was by that time. She explained to me what happened if people, you know, touched.

Trevor Hoppe (07:05)
Got it.

Yeah.

TT (07:29)
each other while one of them was menstruating. It was just like really, it was very straightforward and very, very matter of fact. But I think because of the environment that I was raised in, in that particular, you know, in that microcosm of a household in our, in our family unit, there was a lot of permission to, to kind of explore and ask questions and be curious up to a point.

Trevor Hoppe (07:32)
Wow, that’s pretty advanced.

Mm -hmm.

TT (07:57)
And then,

you know, if we started, if we started going down the road of queer, or if we started going down the road of like, admitting that I was attracted to other boys or that I liked men or masculinity or, or the spectrum of different things, of what I was attracted to. I remember also like being really fascinated by the idea of gender fluidity when I was a little kid and.

Trevor Hoppe (08:22)
-hmm.

TT (08:23)
oftentimes would role play as a girl. And it made it drove my father insane. So as permissive as they were on one side and as curious as we are allowed to be about some things, when it came to gender expression and gender roles, those things were really rigid. Like this is what boys do, this is what girls do. And I think to this day, my dad is still a little bit like,

Trevor Hoppe (08:27)
Hmm.

Mm -hmm.

TT (08:52)
I don’t know what I did wrong. You know, like he still blames himself for not making me man enough somehow.

Trevor Hoppe (09:00)
Mm -hmm. And what was that process like when you finally went down that road and just weren’t just curious anymore, but actually describing yourself as queer with your family? How did that go?

TT (09:12)
I mean, that was many years later. I didn’t actually come out to them until I was 22. And by that time I had left home. I had been living in Europe for several years. I had explored the gamut of what a young, you know, again, like it was Reagan era eighties, like craziness. So,

Trevor Hoppe (09:19)
Mm -hmm.

TT (09:40)
the, the in hindsight, it was like a really conservative time to just be a young person in general. So as much as we were exploring and as much as things were like artistically, like androgynous and creative and weird. And, you know, I think of the Brit pop and the new new wave era and like the post -punk era. And, you know, we got Boy George and we got

Trevor Hoppe (10:02)
Mm -hmm. David Bowie’s of it all.

TT (10:06)
the very, very beginnings of RuPaul and we got the, you know, we got, we started seeing, we started the visibility train that we see now. So I felt, I felt safe coming out to some people. I didn’t feel safe coming out to my family and I had moved back home and then I finally got a job on the East coast and moved out as an adult and found myself in a relationship because, you know, in the early nineties, you either,

Trevor Hoppe (10:23)
Mm -hmm.

TT (10:34)
fucked yourself to death or you got into a monogamous relationship. Those were the two avenues that were kind of politicized to all of us. So I found myself in a relationship and after I was in that relationship for about six or nine months, I came out to my parents in this really clunky way. And at first they were really, really supportive about it and they were really cool about it.

And then I started talking about it. And then it was again, kind of like this clamp down that I had experienced when I was a kid. And I talked about sexuality and gender and queerness. And they were like, we get it. Don’t talk about it. We get it. It’s bugging us. Don’t talk about it.

Trevor Hoppe (11:14)
Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, for the time, I guess, not the worst reaction possible. You know, I think back to those days.

TT (11:22)
Mm -mm -mm. No, I wasn’t disowned.

I wasn’t shunned. I I wasn’t ever not welcomed back in the house. But there were different microaggressions that happened. Two of my aunts who were born -again Christians who had left whatever church, one of them was raised in a,

Trevor Hoppe (11:29)
The bar was pretty low.

TT (11:50)
fundamentalist Christian church left that and then went into another fundamentalist Christian church. And she wouldn’t, when she found out that I was gay, she wouldn’t let me like be around my cousins anymore. Cause they were younger than me and somehow I was going to influence them. And I remember the first time I came home with my partner and it was probably about a year after I came out to my parents, they wanted us to sleep in separate rooms.

Trevor Hoppe (12:20)
wow.

TT (12:22)
And I was like, we live together. What do you think the sleeping arrangement is in my house? So like just stuff like that. It was not, we don’t love you anymore. Get out of our house. We can’t stand the sight of you. But if you are going to be this way, do it in a way that makes it feel good to us.

Trevor Hoppe (12:24)
Yeah.

So you’re coming out in your early 20s, it sounds like. When did you start sexually exploring before that? I assume before that, but maybe not.

TT (12:52)
Mm -hmm.

my God, when I was

like 11, I had my first orgasm when I was 11. So like all through late elementary school, junior high, high school, I was notorious for, this is gonna sound creepy in 2024, but I was notorious for setting up challenge games with mine and my brother’s friends as young teenage boys.

Trevor Hoppe (12:58)
Mmm.

TT (13:23)
where the payoff was always like, if you lost, you had to do some sexual act or you had to strip down naked or you lost a piece of clothing. And I was always an instigator in that way. But I mean, I think back of it and I give myself a little bit of a break because if I look back at the context of where I was and how my…

I was never one of those kids who was confident enough in myself or just so much myself that I was just queer, queer, queer, queer, queer from the get go. There were two other guys in my, two other folks, I’m just gonna say people now, because I don’t know how they identify these days, who were in my junior high and high school, who were gay as the day is long. They wore makeup, they dressed,

Trevor Hoppe (14:12)
Really?

Wow.

TT (14:15)
in

the most genderqueer way that I can remember. They were very, like one of them was super, super effeminate and they just, they couldn’t be any other way. So that’s just, they were just like, listen, love me or hate me. This is who I am. And I was so confused by them and I wanted to be them so badly and I couldn’t. Yet at the same time, I was expressing my own queerness in these sideways,

Trevor Hoppe (14:31)
Yeah. Yeah.

Hehehe.

TT (14:45)
non indirect ways that made it apparent that I wasn’t like the other boys, you know. So, you know, getting back to those, those challenge games and finding outlets for my sexuality. It, I wouldn’t say they were the most consensual all the time, but as kids exploring, you know, that’s.

That’s what happened. And we also, you know, there was also like masturbation all the time and access to pornography. And, you know, we did, this is pretty, we’re talking pre -internet, pre -cell phone, pre, you know, we couldn’t just dial, we couldn’t just log on and have everything at our fingertips. So for me, it was like,

finding whenever I would look onto something where I could see male sexuality portrayed, my dad, you know, every, I think everybody’s dad had some kind of porn magazines at some point. My dad really liked, my dad really liked Hustler Magazine and I loved Hustler Magazine because it always had at least one photo spread with a guy in it.

Trevor Hoppe (15:51)
huh, yeah, sure.

Ha ha ha.

-huh, totally, I know exactly what you’re talking about.

TT (16:05)
And then I

could be like, my God, there’s an erection. I can kind of fantasize. Once I got over a learning disability that impeded my reading skills for probably five or six years, I became this voracious reader and I would read the penthouse forums and all the salacious,

Readers, you know, readers submitted, who knows if they really were, readers submitted experience essays that were like pre -blog in those magazines, you know.

Trevor Hoppe (16:38)
Sure.

So you were raised on like straight nasty culture basically, like porn. For lack of a better term.

TT (16:50)
straight nasty culture. Yeah, exactly. You know, I’m always like, I want to, in fact, just

today, right. In fact, just today, I was thinking, you know, my parents didn’t have that many friends, but the friends that they did, like they were always hooting and hollering, whooping it up with each other. And they would go over and have like movie nights with their friends. And I was just like,

Trevor Hoppe (17:06)
Mm.

TT (17:10)
Were you all swingers? Like, I don’t, and like, you just didn’t tell us about it? Like, we just didn’t know? Like, so there was definitely some shenanigans going on. Yeah, for sure.

Trevor Hoppe (17:21)
Sexual energy. Yeah, well, both of those things for sure.

That’s fascinating. When did you first finally get to like have sexual experiences with another man?

TT (17:32)
the first time I ever had sex with a guy, and it wasn’t even really sex, it was just kind of like.

bumping around. He was much more experienced than I was. He was this French boy who I met on vacation with my foster family in Europe. And he and my foster brother got kind of we were at this like weird resort place and they kind of got paired up in this tennis.

thing because they both played tennis and Pascal, I’ll never forget his name. My God, I just loved him to death. Pascal tolerated my brother and as soon as he saw me at the pool, like made a beeline over and like sat down and just like his English was terrible. My French was terrible. And we somehow just like flirted our way into, you know, sneaking out of our hotel rooms late at night and going on walks on the beach.

beach

and holding hands and kissing. And it was like, it was so ecstatically wonderful. It was so wonderful and innocent and crazy. And I still wouldn’t come out even after that. I was just like, I don’t know. I’m so conflicted. You know, I had had such a guilt trip done on me about like who I who I was allowed to be in.

Trevor Hoppe (18:41)
That’s kind of like a movie.

TT (19:02)
but I think I was maybe like 18 or 19 when that happened.

Trevor Hoppe (19:03)
Yeah.

it’s kind of a beautiful experience. And you were living in Europe at the time, or was that just a vacation?

TT (19:10)
Mm -hmm.

I was living in Europe at the time. I lived in Europe from the time I was 18 until I was 21.

Trevor Hoppe (19:20)
I see, okay. So you have that sort of fling, it sounds like, kind of, did that last for just a sh, like.

TT (19:26)
Mm hmm. Yeah.

And that definitely it like it cracked something open. It lasted for like the week that we were on vacation. And then we would like we we would like telephone each other very briefly because it was super expensive to call people in Europe at the time. We would telephone each other and just check in. And then write. I was a he was a like my long distance romantic pen pal for a long, long time.

well into my mid -20s.

Trevor Hoppe (19:58)
That’s very sweet.

TT (20:00)
that kind of like that kind of like in hindsight, as I look back on how all of that, how my sexuality evolved and how my how my sapio sexuality kind of got tied up in all of that, I understand a lot more about who I was to the people who I had sex with after that and what made the sex with me different and why it led me to becoming.

Trevor Hoppe (20:11)
huh.

TT (20:27)
sex worker.

Trevor Hoppe (20:29)
There was a lot in that, so let’s break it down. Because the sapiosexual thing, I think some people don’t know that term. So my understanding is just that you’re attracted to people based on their intelligence or the way they think or something about their kind of brain power.

TT (20:32)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I’m attracted to people’s,

I mean, for me it’s kind of a double thing. So I’m really, I’m a sucker for a pretty face. And for me, when I say sapiosexual, for me it’s about like the full package of a person. So I need you to be intelligent. I fall in love with your intelligence. I fall, and that’s the thing, like I fall in love. I get attracted to, I get.

Trevor Hoppe (20:53)
Mm -hmm.

TT (21:14)
I get, I allow myself to go to these places emotionally that most people are just like, I’m just gonna, particularly as masculine, I’ve sent our queer men, queer folks, you know, there’s a lot of hookups and it’s very emotionally vapid. It’s, or even, you know, I would say it’s like an emotional desert sometimes where it’s just very anonymous, super, super physical.

get my needs met and be done. And find pleasure in that, of course, but I find the most pleasure and the most gratification when I get to engage with somebody and figure out what makes them tick.

Trevor Hoppe (21:54)
Yeah. How do you think you got there? Like, cause that’s, that’s a journey, I think, particularly for men that is difficult because there’s so much discourse around our men’s sexuality as being so physical and emotionless, as you kind of say. And so what was the journey like to get to that place of recognizing the kind of full breadth of your own sexual desire?

TT (22:05)
Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

It was tough. I have I have said in the past to people that I found myself being really confused because what I thought was hooking up other people who I hooked up with interpreted as a deeper emotional connection. So for me it was you know it’s it’s kind of like I really think it is just part of the nature of who I am and how I connect with people and how I am sexual with people.

Trevor Hoppe (22:32)
Right.

TT (22:43)
that makes me, like there was no discovery, it’s just how I am. The discovery and self -realization that that was different or other than the way that most other men and masculine identified people engaged in sex with each other took a long time to kind of pull apart.

in my early 20s and even when I was in that relationship that I was talking about late teens, early 20s, and even into my early 30s, I think I would have people just fall madly in love with me and I had no idea what I did. I was like, we just fucked. We just had great sex. Like how great it like that’s all it was for me.

Trevor Hoppe (23:24)
Ha ha.

Well, so I guess I’m wondering, because I kind of know what you mean, right? That there’s this emotional connection that you feel, but it’s not love. It’s something, or it is love? I don’t know. How would you characterize it?

TT (23:36)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah, I think having now been doing sexual healing work and sex coaching and intimacy work with people for almost 20 years, I would say it is love. It is a form of love. You know how the Greeks have different words for different kinds of love? It is in the spectrum of love. And I…

It kind of makes me really good at what I do because I can fall in love with you for a couple of hours and really invite you to open up emotionally and be vulnerable with me. And now that I know that is a…

skill that I have or that I was born with or raised with or conditioned to be with, It’s what’s made me really good at what I do. But as a young person, having society be like, this is how men have sex, and then really inviting people, because I talk, I joke around.

I’m curious, I’m playful when I have sex and even when I was younger, that’s the way that I always engaged. It was never like a quick hand job in the dark, like with some random stranger. Like I always wanted to know who you were.

Trevor Hoppe (25:04)
So you never went through a period of like having that, those kind of anonymous connections and you always sort of found your way through these more deeper connections or I’m just curious like.

TT (25:17)
Yeah, which made it, even though I love being promiscuous and I’m a total big old slut, it makes it challenging because I like to engage with folks before I have sex with them. That’s part of the process for me. That turns me on almost more than getting naked and getting to it. That’s the easy part in my sphere.

Trevor Hoppe (25:30)
Mmm.

TT (25:41)
Like the part that really turns me on is talking about it and sexting, I fucking love sexting. When I was introduced to the internet in the late 90s, mid to late 90s, I loved chat rooms. I loved them. Like IRC chat rooms, get me on one, I’m going. And you could live out.

Trevor Hoppe (25:51)
Haha, yeah.

Mm -hmm.

my god, I used to love IRC. my god.

Yes.

TT (26:10)
You could live out all

these fantasies and you could get really, you know, people because there’s a facade there, people would be more vulnerable in those chat rooms. And it was really interesting to me to it really turned me on to like talk about sex in the context of who you are as a person in this chat room.

Trevor Hoppe (26:21)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah, I mean, it was like the days of actual like chat sex, like, which I don’t feel like is practiced very much anymore, but there was a time where you would use the little asterisk to denote, you know, actions or whatever, separate from work. You know, there was a whole kind of protocol. And I loved that.

TT (26:36)
Yeah.

Yeah, I mean it

was pre video. It was we we couldn’t do this what we’re doing right now. So you know there was pre video conferencing. It was pre. I remember there was one IRC room where this where this person I had met had rigged up this tiny little pixelated video feed. And if you were lucky if you could get a webcam you could do this tiny pixelated video feed and I remember the very first time I ever did like.

Trevor Hoppe (26:51)
Yep.

TT (27:14)
like video chat sex with another person was like 1998 or 99 and it was wild. I was like, what is happening? It’s like I’m living a porn living, living a porn video right now.

Trevor Hoppe (27:21)
Mm -hmm.

Did the internet change your sexuality in any way?

TT (27:33)
it just expanded it. Like stuff that I was always curious about, I just could go, you know, we’re talking like pre algorithm feeding you what your habits are. We’re talking pre like I missed the days of doing a being on a search engine and just going down this weird wormhole where the where there were no there were no bots telling you like feeding you what the algorithm thought that you wanted.

It was all associative. You’d click on a link and then you’d click on another link and you’d click on another link. And before you knew it, you were. Miles out into the stratosphere or deep, yeah, you’d get into some like weird dark shit and be like, back up, back up, erase, erase, erase.

Trevor Hoppe (28:09)
deep.

TT (28:20)
But the but going back to your question about like anonymous hookups, I didn’t really explore that until.

until after I had like my first major sexual awakening in my early 30s.

And I think because, you know, growing up with AIDS kind of hanging over everything. There was a lot of fear, there was a lot of shame, just I mean, you know, you’ve written books about this stuff. There was a lot of fear, there was a lot of shame, there was a lot of vilification of promiscuity and hooking up. Cruising culture had all but died and all of the people who I would have ever.

Trevor Hoppe (28:51)
Hehehe

TT (29:04)
learned anything about cruising culture from had died during that period of time. Like all our time was spent being kind of like respectable queer people. And then when you weren’t being a respectable queer person, you were you were out in the streets being an activist.

Trevor Hoppe (29:27)
Mm -hmm.

TT (29:27)
for the rights of the people who were still dying because AZT wasn’t working and the drug cocktails in the early years weren’t working and people were still dropping dead all the time. So it was kind of like, it was a weird time to be a young queer person in your like,

like when I had that first orgasm that I was talking about in 11, like I understood what I was attracted to back then, even at that early age. Like I understood that masculinity and men and maleness were the things that were tripping my trigger. And it was the same year.

that the headlines about gay cancer were splashed everywhere. And I kind of figured it out at that early age that if I chose to walk down this road that I was, you know, if I had sex with anybody else, I could die. So that kind of lived with me through the late 90s, through that period that you were talking about when you first came out. And…

Trevor Hoppe (30:19)
Mm.

TT (30:29)
Then I hit 30 and it was like, I had a second adolescence. I got out of that relationship. I quit my job, I reinvented myself and started to explore things that I felt I was curious about and I wanted to, I just wanted to have experiences. And some of those experiences were terrible.

Luckily, I met my current partner, my husband of almost 24 years now during that time. And one of the first things I said to him was, listen, I’m just discovering who I am as a person and sexually and as an artist. And I I need you to respect that. Or this isn’t going to work. And he was totally on board. So we’ve had an open we’ve had an open relationship.

Trevor Hoppe (31:17)
Wow.

TT (31:22)
with evolving agreements from day one.

Trevor Hoppe (31:26)
And how long have you all been together now?

TT (31:28)
It’ll be 24 years in August.

Trevor Hoppe (31:31)
Wow, that’s amazing. Congratulations. That is a feat, especially in the gay world. I’m at about 11 years now. And so I can appreciate what 24 years takes. So that’s amazing. But you mentioned earlier some kind of terrible experiences along the way. And I always like to take a pit stop to talk about that because I think unfortunately you have to have some of those to get to the good stuff. What was?

TT (31:46)
Mm -hmm.

Trevor Hoppe (31:59)
What does terrible sex look like for you?

TT (32:01)
Terrible sex for me looks like being with somebody who…

is not interested in who I am, or even that I’m another human being in the room, but is solely in it for themselves. Like there’s no feeling of reciprocation. And I have a really vivid memory of kind of like, after I got out of my first relationship in 2000.

I went through this really, really slutty period and I hooked up with a bunch of people. I was dating six different guys at the same time and, and hooking up with folks in between and, you know, doing all the, doing all the crazy shit, like staying up way too late. What a friend of mine said recently, nothing good ever happens after 2am, or 3am or something like that. But, you know, I’d be like driving across town.

at at three and four three and four o ‘clock in the morning and hooking up with tweakers and just it was it was just bad it was just it was it was empty sex it left me feeling empty i don’t know if they even would remember it the next day

I remember just feeling really horny and really wanting to explore this part of myself that I didn’t get a chance to as a younger person and finding finding myself in situations that either just felt bad. Like I could have been anybody. With a hole. And a pulse and a temperature and it wouldn’t have mattered. You know.

to this other person. And that’s just really, that’s gross sex to me. Like I remember hooking up with this one guy and he, I walked in and I was kind of unsure and he didn’t look like, you know, again, we had like early day internet, like gay .com or manhunt or something like that, right? And the pictures that he had in his profile, I was like, those are a little old.

Trevor Hoppe (34:02)
Yes, I remember it well.

TT (34:11)
But I was, I was, you know, horny and it was late and I, and I wanted it to happen. And I remember just leaving feeling like really gross and kind of violated. And he just kept in this really creepy voice going, you’re a lot of fun. You’re a lot of fun. And I, and the whole time I just, I didn’t know how to get out of the situation and I didn’t feel 100 % safe. And every time he said, you’re a lot of fun. The only thing I could think of was you’re not.

Trevor Hoppe (34:25)
Hmm.

TT (34:41)
I just want to get out of here as quickly as possible. I want to get out of here as quickly as possible, so I’m going to get you off and I’m going to leave.

Trevor Hoppe (34:48)
It sounds like part of that experience was about learning to say no. Is that fair?

TT (34:56)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Trevor Hoppe (34:59)
Why is that so hard? I mean, it seems so right. Yeah, I mean, just I think that’s a skill we have to learn, right? And I guess if you were thinking about how to tell people, because I think many people I talked to go through this kind of moment of struggling to get out of situations that they’re not excited about anymore. What tips could you give people who are struggling with that?

TT (35:01)
Why are we saying no so hard?

Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

First and foremost, you have permission to say no at any time. You have permission to change your mind and you have permission to say no. And I’m a little, you know, I’m a lot older now and much more jaded and cynical about the world. So I’m, you know, so I’m like, I look back on those moments, like that one I just described, and I think.

Trevor Hoppe (35:39)
Yeah, I know the feeling.

TT (35:49)
If somebody had told me how good looking I was and how worthy I was of love and how much I was bringing to the situation and that power that was inherently just there, just being there, right? There was power in there. There was power for me to feel empowered. There was power for me to find my voice.

There was power for me to say yes or no and agree or consent to whatever was going on. And we were kind of, you know, I think back to that period of time, like we were at this cusp point of transitioning into another period where we find ourselves now where consent is a big deal. And people were learning to find their voices. So if you’re struggling to find your voice right now,

Trevor Hoppe (36:32)
Mm -hmm.

TT (36:38)
The only thing I can say is, is no is a complete sentence and you don’t owe anybody anything ever. You don’t owe anybody anything.

Trevor Hoppe (36:45)
Amen.

No, that’s really helpful, I think.

TT (36:49)
Just because you

got it to a certain point and you find yourself in a situation that feels vulnerable does not mean that you owe that other person who is, for all intents and purposes, a complete stranger, you don’t owe them anything. You don’t owe them your time, you don’t owe them your attention, you certainly don’t owe them your body.

Trevor Hoppe (37:12)
Amen. Do you think, I heard you mention earlier the way you phrased, anyone with a hole. Were top bottom by dynamics playing into that at all for you, do you think?

TT (37:23)
I was really versatile at the time, so…

And, you know, being the, you know, going back to that notion of sapio sexuality and the way that I engaged with other people, being a little bit more emotionally connected, I think that that tied into it too. Not that I considered myself submissive, but I really wanted my partners to have a good time. What I understand now about the way that I move through the world and form friendships and relationships is I’m super, super compersive

Trevor Hoppe (37:45)
Mm -hmm.

TT (37:54)
I love, one of the things that turns me on the most is watching somebody else be happy and succeed and have pleasure and have all the good things. I didn’t know what that term meant during that period of time. And I also didn’t realize how important it was to my own sexual expression. So for me, that manifested more often than not in not being able to say no to somebody because I didn’t want to hurt their feelings.

Trevor Hoppe (38:22)
That’s real. Comperson, I mean, so as I understand it again, it’s just like taking, being happy for other people experiencing pleasure, basically. It’s how I kind of think about it. Is that how you think about it?

TT (38:33)
Mm

yeah, it’s a term that’s mostly used in polyamory circles, meaning that I derive the greatest pleasure from my partner’s pleasure, or I derive the greatest joy from my partner’s joy. But I take that further out into the world.

where if you are having success as my friend, I wanna do everything in my power to lift you up and make it even more successful because that just like, it turns me on to no end. It makes me so happy to see other people experiencing joy.

Trevor Hoppe (39:12)
Yeah, it’s interesting because I think sometimes people mistake that, as you said, for submissiveness, but they’re different. And I guess I don’t think we have a good vocabulary to talk about that. I guess I’ve kind of realized that myself in my own life, the distinction between these things, because I also feel compersion is very close to my heart. And…

TT (39:21)
Mm -hmm.

Trevor Hoppe (39:35)
Does that, I guess I’m still trying to just get, you said you were very versatile at the time. I’m wondering how those top bottom categories, how you’ve navigated them, especially in relationship, this compersion thing, because I’m just fascinated by the relationship, if there is one or if you see one between those binaries that we’re kind of stuck in sometimes.

and these notions of pleasure and pleasing your partner.

TT (40:04)
Yeah, I definitely think about it. And I’ve definitely thought about it in terms of top bottom and expanding those ideas of top bottom to mean more dominant or alpha and more submissive or beta because they kind of get couched in there.

Trevor Hoppe (40:28)
Mm -hmm.

TT (40:28)
And

I’ve known some very dominant bottoms and I’ve known some very, very, very subby tops in my time. But for me, I have identified mostly as a dominant top leaning person for the last 20 plus years. So.

Shifting from versatile. I was just like, wait I like this much more because I get to be in control of the narrative and when I’m in control of the narrative You know, like I’ve I’ve worked as a dominant I have been dominant in personal relationships and When I am in that role, that’s when I get to express the most compersion because your pleasure is all at my fingertips

Trevor Hoppe (41:09)
Mm -hmm.

The scripts around like being a dom top are so inverse of that. They are they’re basically like your pleasure doesn’t matter at all right like if you read erotic stories, they are often couched in that way and Yeah, I think this is so real for so many men who identify in that top category that they are just as invested in compersion as You know allegedly bottoms are supposed to be

TT (41:23)
Right.

Right.

Yeah, I mean, many of the submissives who I have played with or been in relationship with or worked with professionally have commented on the fact that when they first meet me, they find me to be very soft and they don’t know if I can go there with them. And I actually think that it’s my ability to be vulnerable and to be soft and to be emotionally present that makes me a good top and it makes me a good dominant. If you’re.

If you don’t care about the other person’s pleasure or their happiness or their joy, you’re just an asshole. You’re not a top, you’re an asshole.

Trevor Hoppe (42:17)
Ha ha.

You heard it here first. I think that’s succinct and to the point. I appreciate that.

because I think people…

get caught up in the fantasy and they can’t distinguish fantasy from reality. And I think that’s where people really get stuck, especially, I think bottoms sometimes, but also tops because we just get sort of stuck in this box and can’t really see the forest from the trees or something.

TT (42:34)
Mm -hmm.

Right.

Well, I think that we get stuck in in what we are socialized to believe is a

masculine of center or, or, you know, we’re, we’re, we’re socialized into gender roles all day, every day from the time we’re spit out onto the planet. So, so particularly in a, a, in a culture that is so obsessed with, you know, in this day and age in the United States, gender roles are really becoming very, very, very rigid, for a, for a

broad spectrum of people, whether they know it or not. So the idea of playing with those gender roles and being softly, nurturingly, you know, paternally masculine and vulnerably masculine feels very foreign to a lot of guys who are obsessed with being men. You know, people with penises who are obsessed with being men.

Trevor Hoppe (43:38)
Mm -hmm.

TT (43:39)
The

misogyny is the internalized misogyny is rampant in those spaces

Trevor Hoppe (43:45)
So you went through this period of hookups, having this unfulfilling sex. Was there like a breakthrough moment or something where you were like, shake yourself out of this pattern?

TT (43:57)
Yeah, it’s funny because my partner never had any. He’s he’s one of those guys. He just you know, he loves cruising and he loves anonymous hookups. And it was never the thing for me. And it actually took him being really patient. He’s a little bit older than I am being really patient and understanding that not everybody is built the same way.

And letting me just explore on my own and be okay with me, you know, he’ll joke sometimes that I’ll come home and I’ll be all infatuated with somebody and I’ll talk about them ad nauseum and how cute they are and how sexy they are and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then I’ll catch myself and I’ll apologize and he’s like, babe.

Trevor Hoppe (44:38)
Mm.

TT (44:49)
This isn’t my first time at the rodeo. This isn’t the first time you had a crush on somebody. This isn’t the first. We’ve we’ve been doing this for 24 years. Like, I get it. Like, you’re allowed to have all of your feelings. You’re allowed to you’re allowed to let yourself get swept away. I mean, I have I had a secondary relationship in the midst of this 24 year period, that was deep and meaningful. And I love that person to death and not literally.

Trevor Hoppe (44:51)
we’ve been doing this for 24 years.

TT (45:17)
And it really helped me also, like, I, you know, continue to find, continue to grow and evolve as a sexual being. But my current partner, when I was 33, 34, pushed me to have my first experience in the Body Electric School, doing a, doing a, their intro weekend called Celebrating the Body Erotic.

And there, all this stuff that I’ve been talking about, like the emotional connection, like trying to get to know people, being vulnerable, letting all of your emotions be available to you in the middle of some really hot, sexy, juicy, orgasmic experiences. Like all of that was, they create this container where all of that stuff is allowed. And for a lot of people, it’s too much.

Trevor Hoppe (46:08)
Mm -hmm.

TT (46:08)
And

for me, I was like, I found my people. I’m right at home. my God. What this is. This is the best thing ever. I want to do this. You know, I was I was I was working full time as an artist at the time, and I thought I was never, ever going to do anything else with the rest of my life. And then I found.

Trevor Hoppe (46:17)
Mm -hmm.

TT (46:30)
this like intentional connected sexuality and it became my mission to like bring it to the rest of the world.

Trevor Hoppe (46:39)
And tell folks, because I don’t think some people are familiar with body electric, what is body electric and where did it sort of originate?

TT (46:47)
Yeah, so Buddy Electric is a school that was founded by a man named Joseph Kramer in the late 80s in Northern California. And at that time, because of AIDS and people like, mostly because of AIDS, people weren’t touching each other, people weren’t, people were either having sex and dying, or they weren’t having sex at all.

And he saw this schism happening. Like if we can’t engage with each other sexually and also allow our emotion, our full humanity to be present, we’re not going to make it as a culture. So he started really doing a lot of research and then teaching classes and eventually formed the Body Electric school, which gives people a safe space to kind of play and explore sexually as adults.

Trevor Hoppe (47:25)
Mm.

TT (47:41)
And really experience the full potential of their orgasms and you know explore their pleasure and be curious and and and playful and experimental But it’s all like in this safe container. It’s a very guided experience. Like all their programming is very guided. So you never feel like you’re You know, if you start freaking out there’s always going to be somebody there to to

process that with you. And they have a bunch of different, they’ve gone through a bunch of different iterations. They just at the beginning of the pan, just before the beginning of the pandemic hit, they had a whole restructuring of the school and brought in a very queer, very BIPOC advisory board so that they could look at some of their programming and rework it.

so that it felt more inclusive to a much broader spectrum of queerness. Because originally it was men. It was men who were born with penises and testicles. That’s who was allowed and invited and welcomed.

Trevor Hoppe (48:50)
What do you think Body Electric taught you?

TT (48:52)
Body Electric taught me it was okay to have sex the way that I like to have sex. what it really taught me was it’s okay to give somebody else pleasure and not expect anything in return.

Trevor Hoppe (49:04)
Mmm.

Why do you think you, why did you need to, you didn’t know that before, I guess? What was the challenge there for you?

TT (49:12)
I think what it taught me, I think the challenge was to feel good about it.

it kind of gave me like a like context and language to talk about things that I knew about myself for years and didn’t I never felt seen I never felt understood I never felt heard and it gave me a place to express that and ask questions about it and explore it and unpack it and and then

Trevor Hoppe (49:31)
-hmm.

TT (49:39)
individuate it for myself. So it was really part of, you know, I always think that my sexual awakening that has had this very long arc has also been deeply tied to my spiritual awakening and my self -realization. And it was like somebody handed me this secret that was like, sex is integral.

Trevor Hoppe (49:59)
-hmm.

TT (50:02)
to all of the things that they tell us are important in the world, and then they tell us not to have sex. But we’re telling you, you have to have sex, and you have to enjoy it, and you have to find pleasure in order to be successful and to live a full, rich life.

Trevor Hoppe (50:09)
Alright.

And just this…

TT (50:23)
And

once I had that, once I had that, I was like off to the races.

Trevor Hoppe (50:27)
Does Body Electric connect to this identity of sacred intimate for you?

TT (50:32)
Yes, that’s where I first heard the term sacred intimate. That was where I first understood that there is a healing power that can be explored in really good deep connected erotic expression.

It kind of gave it like this weightiness and this import that I didn’t understand before that sex has, sex is a powerful thing that we deny ourselves all the time because the larger society says, no, you don’t talk about it. there’s always some shame attached to it.

Trevor Hoppe (51:01)
Mm -hmm.

TT (51:15)
We don’t talk about it, we don’t educate about it, we deny that it even exists. But, you know, we want everybody to have babies and procreate.

Trevor Hoppe (51:22)
Right.

TT (51:24)
yeah, but Body Electric really was like, not only are we going to tell you that the secret is having really good sex and being okay with that, but then there’s this thing, there’s this term that we as professionals can bring to the world to help other people explore that area as a sacred intimate.

When I first started professionally providing service as a sacred intimate.

I…

wasn’t necessarily cool with being a sex worker and it took me several years to like get over that internalized phobia as well. But you know like I’ve been in this industry for almost 20 years.

For me, it’s like any, I see people who label themselves as escorts or boyfriends or girlfriends for hire or rent boys I see them providing a service that is necessary and rich and really vital to other human beings.

And anybody who does that could label themselves a sacred intimate in my book. The thing is like I bring in the difference is like I intentionally cultivate the emotional connection, the the invitation for vulnerability, the invitation for.

for the people who I work with to really make it all about themselves and explore with me as kind of like, I see sacred intimates as like your guide through the amusement park of sex and emotions and love and relationships and intimacy.

Trevor Hoppe (53:14)
And adding in one more layer to it, I know you talk a lot about teaching tantra or tantric sex kind of practices or techniques. How does that overlap and relate with this kind of ideology, the body electric, sacred intimate, this kind of framework for you?

TT (53:23)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah, so Buddy Electric has a big Daoist erotic influence. So there’s this sect of Daoist philosophy that talks about the potency of your lower chakra energy, which is where your sexual energy lives and how to kind of harness that and play with it and control it. And then over the years,

Trevor Hoppe (53:49)
Mm -hmm.

TT (53:56)
some tantra has kind of trickled into that through different avenues. So Body Electric actually has like an introduction, introductory tantra course that they teach. But as I have taken to studying tantra more in depth, what I realize is that, again, it’s like, it’s this very holistic approach to being.

a human being inviting sexual like recognizing like our sexuality and our pleasure are inherent to who we are not only that but they’re important and they’re a vital key to like your spiritual awakening. So if you practice these techniques we’re not going to guarantee that everything is going to that you’re going to going to wake up one day and be be the Buddha or enlightened or whatever but

you will know yourself a lot better and be able to function much better in the world. If you embrace some of these practices, you’ll be a better lover. You’ll be able to connect with people emotionally much faster and much easier. You’ll you’ll be able to discern. Subtle ways that your body is telling you yes and no in different situations and all of that. While it really helps you be a good lover and it really helps you be.

proficient and amazing sexually and has the potential to do that. It just makes you a better human being.

Trevor Hoppe (55:26)
Mmm.

TT (55:27)
So, yeah, you know, like I could get hung up on like all the intricacies of like breath work and, and orgasm exploration. And, you know, I do a body mapping class where we, we, we, you know, work ourselves up into different states of arousal and then find, and then kind of like map where that lives in our body. And,

and discover, you know, I really actually do like having my nipples played with, or I’m really curious about the way that scent plays a role in my sexual expression, or, you know, you can get very esoteric about it and can get really weird and kind of freaky, because our bodies are magical and wonderful and crazy, crazy places full of sensation and, and neural stimulation.

But just like the basic 101 of it is really about connecting so deeply with yourself that you.

you kind of like drop the…

you break out of the box or break out of the shell that we build around ourselves about what sex is supposed to be in, the roles that we’re supposed to play in sex and who the people, who you’re supposed to be and who I’m supposed to be. And you just get to be a human being playing with your human body and enjoying your human pleasure and invite the person who’s with you to do the same thing.

Trevor Hoppe (56:50)
If you were going to give a young person a tip or two for breaking out of that shell, obviously there’s a lot of work that can go into it over the life course of training, but just, is there something, I don’t know, probably not an easy fix, but something you can try to break out in that way.

TT (57:07)
Be curious about the things that give you pleasure.

Allow yourself, give yourself permission to be curious about the things that give you pleasure. Whether or not somebody is saying, you shouldn’t be doing that for whatever arbitrary reason. As long, you know, the caveat being as long as you’re not hurting somebody else in the process, if this thing is giving you pleasure, explore it. Find out the intricacies of it. Find out the why of it.

move towards that attraction and see if it’s real. And then if it is, build on it.

I’ve said in the past that sex is like adult play time. And if we don’t give ourselves enough time to play, if you ever watch children play, they’re constantly experimenting, they’re failing, they’re hurting themselves, they’re picking things back up, they’re having fun, they’re experiencing.

Trevor Hoppe (57:52)
Mm -hmm.

TT (58:08)
the full depth and breadth of a human experience just exploring what it means to be a physical creature in the world. And as adults, we get boxed into these notions that we’re not allowed to do that anymore. And I think we should be doing it regularly all the time, as much as possible.

Trevor Hoppe (58:30)
thinking back on the experiences that you’ve had, what does the best sex look like for you?

TT (58:37)
man.

The best sex for me is really slow. It is…

connected enough so that we’re paying attention to each other, but we’re not like neither neither person or nobody in the in the group of people who are being sexual with one another feels obligated to perform in any way.

and you get to be really real and goofy. Like, I can’t tell you how often I’ve freaked people out because I laugh during sex and I’m chatty during sex. And I, you know, it’s fun. It feels good. I’ve had people stop in the middle of like whatever we’re doing thinking that I’m laughing at them. And I’m like, no, I’m just having a good time. You should try laughing too. It’s really great.

Trevor Hoppe (59:29)
Laughter is a funny thing to experience in the bedroom, but once you kind of get used to it, yeah, now I often do the same and definitely it catches people off guard and you have to kind of be like, it’s okay. Like I’m okay, I’m just, you know, there are these moments that are kind of, I don’t know, silly or goofy as you said, definitely. I love that.

TT (59:35)
It is.

And

there are things that are there are things that are silly and funny about sex like like sex is not porn. It’s not clean. It’s not like if you look at people who are really into each other having sex, it’s very rarely what you see in porn movies or in sex scenes and television and movies. It looks weird. There are body parts all over the place. Angles, there are wrinkles and rolls and.

Trevor Hoppe (1:00:15)
Mm -hmm.

TT (1:00:23)
You know, people are making funny noises and bodies are doing what bodies do and it’s it’s funny. And then it also feels good on top of that. So, of course, like if a laugh escapes from time to time, like God forbid, let it happen.

Trevor Hoppe (1:00:30)
Ha ha.

Absolutely, I am all for having fun. So I think that’s a great message. And I just wanna…

TT (1:00:48)
Mm -hmm. Yeah, so

the best sex yeah

short answer is best sex should be fun, in my opinion. The best sex should be fun.

Trevor Hoppe (1:00:54)
Yeah, amen to that.

Capital F -U -N. What strategies have you found in your life for finding that best sex?

TT (1:01:06)
Yeah, you know, it goes back to what we were talking about at the beginning of our time together. I also like working also working with sexuality professionally, hooking up casually and being casual about sex got really tricky for me for a long time and it got really blurry. Using my erotic energy in service to other people has been.

a fraught path, let’s just say, and difficult to navigate sometimes. So for me, what makes that possible is, is, you know, kind of what I was talking about before, like getting to know people a little bit before I jump in. I’m not going to say that I haven’t ever had the the smack of

love chemistry happen where you’re both where you you know we i think that if we’re lucky we’ve all had this happen where we meet somebody there’s instant chemistry and you know because the pheromones are there the the the willingness is there from both parties the consent is there and you just like rip each other’s clothes off and go crazy and it’s amazing that’s rare but it happens

But for me, like cultivating really good sex takes a little bit of work. And it’s not always as spontaneous as we want it to be. And it’s okay to negotiate. And you can make the negotiation leading up to your best sex really sexy.

Trevor Hoppe (1:02:45)
Hmm.

TT (1:02:46)
talking, like really getting descriptive about what you’re into and talking about like why you’re into it and what, you know, like I wanna know, I’m curious like what other experiences have you had? I really get off on listening to my partners and people who I care about talk about other dalliances and liaisons and paramours. So yeah, taking the time to at least like…

get to know a little bit about what’s gonna, you know, who this other person is, makes it for a much richer experience in my opinion.

Trevor Hoppe (1:03:14)
And how would you, if you’re,

I just want to sort of think about the listener and, and, you know, if you are a gay man on the apps on Grindr, that’s a tough place sometimes to try to get to know people. How would you advise people like in that kind of context, is there a way to pursue that, to try to get to know people on that deeper level?

TT (1:03:24)
Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Yeah, I mean, again, I’m going to be really jaded here for part of it. But like, I have no time for somebody who “sup’s” me or or. W .Y .D.’s me, and that’s like the extent of their that’s the extent of their like, if I’m trying to engage somebody, I would say try to engage somebody in a little bit of banter in the text back and forth.

Trevor Hoppe (1:03:54)
huh.

-huh.

TT (1:04:07)
And if you’re comfortable sharing photos and that’s your thing, like do that, like A, know your boundaries and stick to them. B, like if you really want to get to know somebody, engage them in conversation. And for me, if I’m getting like one word answers or one line answers or, you know, the, for the opening is, Hey, what’s up? And a dick pic, but your the rest of your profile is blank. I, that’s not going to be a good interaction for me.

Trevor Hoppe (1:04:36)
Mm -hmm.

TT (1:04:36)
You

know, knowing yourself when you’re approaching those apps is really important and kind of sticking to that. Like, don’t settle. It’s an app. There are hundreds of people on it. One of them is going to be the guy who rocks your world. You know that. Maybe not on Grindr anymore. Grindr kind of sucks these days, but…

Trevor Hoppe (1:04:46)
Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

No,

yeah, I just use it as the reference because I think it’s the one.

TT (1:05:00)
But even

like Sniffy’s, which is the, yeah. But Sniffy’s, which has become the ultimate cruising app, right? Which is such an oxymoron, in my opinion. But it’s the ultimate anonymous sex app. Even there, you can find ways to engage with people.

and figure out like, eh, eh, eh, eh. If that trips your trigger, if going to a cruising spot and hanging out and waiting for whatever to come along is your thing, do that. I think the idea of best sexual experience is kind of arbitrary.

Trevor Hoppe (1:05:43)
Of course course.

TT (1:05:44)
and it really depends on who you are. So, you know, if your best sexual experience is going and sucking a bunch of dicks in the rest stop parking lot, be my, go for it, honey, and celebrate it.

Trevor Hoppe (1:05:59)
A plus.

100%. I always like to end with this because I think breaking down the shame of talking about sex is vital. What’s the sluttiest thing you’ve ever done?

TT (1:06:13)
Mm -hmm.

my god.

There’s so many things. I’m like the sluttiest I’ve ever done. Folsom Street, my last Folsom Street fair I ever went to.

Trevor Hoppe (1:06:17)
Hahaha!

TT (1:06:28)
Was it Folsom or Dore I can’t remember. Dore Alley. Last Dore Alley I went to. I was in it to win it. I was feeling good about myself. I was it was 2019 I was having a really good year Went there with my partner, we were kind of seeing somebody at the time they went off to have the rest of their they got, you know, they were both introverts and they went off to be.

to decompress after the overwhelming crowds of those street fairs in San Francisco. And I stayed out and I hooked up with a couple of other sex worker friends of mine and we just went bar hopping. And I found myself, I just, I bar hopped until my dick wouldn’t get hard anymore and I knew after that, it was time to go home.

Trevor Hoppe (1:07:20)
haha

TT (1:07:22)
So, you know, like I was in the Eagle eating somebody’s ass in front of a bunch of people at three o ‘clock in the afternoon. And then we went to this other bar and we did a bunch of stuff there. And then, you know, I was in the smoking area at the, my God, what is that bar on in SOMA? There’s a bar with a notorious smoking area where everybody just has sex in the back.

Trevor Hoppe (1:07:49)
yeah, exchange something, exchange power exchange. No, anyways, it doesn’t matter.

TT (1:07:54)
Power exchange? No, it begins with a P. I’m gonna, now I’m gonna have to go look it up. But so I was in the back area there and just like, you know, everybody’s stuff was in everybody’s hands and you were just going full tilt boogie. And I was just like, you know, the whole time in the back of my mind, I’m like, I gotta go get tested on Monday and make sure I don’t bring anything home. But literally like I was standing there.

And I had been out all afternoon and been having all these amazing experiences. And this friend of mine was trying to organize a gangbang for another friend of ours, because it was their birthday. And they were like, come on, let’s go. I got all the guys in the hotel rooms ready. And I just looked down and I had just like.

Trevor Hoppe (1:08:33)
Well,

TT (1:08:40)
I was saturated and I was like, and my dick’s not getting hard anymore and I don’t feel the least bit turned on. I am just so full of a really intensely slutty, like San Francisco sexy street fair experience. Like people don’t get it, what those street fairs can be like. So that was a really, really.

Trevor Hoppe (1:09:04)
I love it. I think that’s fabulous. Thank you

for sharing that. And if…

TT (1:09:09)
crazy, slutty experience, probably

my last slutty experience for a while.

Trevor Hoppe (1:09:15)
And if people want to learn more about you and the work that you do, where can they find you?

TT (1:09:19)
they can so true confession, true, true stories. I’m on a little bit of a sabbatical right now. I’m still open for consultations and I’m trying to figure out what my next steps are. I’m not seeing clients in person at the moment, but I’m definitely available for like online consultation and doing things like this. but, my website is, www .integral -eros .com.

or just Google TT Baum and I will come up on all the social media apps and you can get in touch with me and ask me questions and Yeah, we can make the world a better sexier more open place

Trevor Hoppe (1:09:58)
Fabulous. Well.

Thank you, TT for joining me. I think you are definitely having some of the best gay sex, so I’m always eager to learn from other people that I admire, so thank you.

Trevor Hoppe (1:10:12)
That’s our show for today. Thank you so much as always for listening. I am truly grateful. And remember, if you are not having the best gay sex of your life, I can help. My services as a sex coach can help you identify and overcome the obstacles that are standing between you and your best sex life. Find out more on my website, thebestgaysex.net. Happy holidays. Till next time.

OVERVIEW:

For the Season 1 finale of The Best Gay Sex Podcast, I’m joined by author and sex worker David Wichman to talk about sexual freedom—and why it matters now more than ever. Drawing from his new book “The Four Rooms,” David shares how surviving a rough childhood, navigating survival sex work, and finding queer joy shaped his radical vision of sexual well-being. We dive into why pleasure is political, how connection builds resilience, and why queer joy isn’t just a luxury—it’s a lifeline. Plus, David spills a few juicy stories about taking all the daddy d*ck he can handle (and why that’s self-care, baby).

TRANSCRIPT:

Trevor Hoppe (00:09)
Hey, welcome to the season one finale of the Best Gay Sex podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Trevor Hoppe. Today’s episode is about sexual freedom. You know, if you haven’t been paying attention to the news, you may have missed it. Authoritarianism is on the rise globally. So as we cap off season one, I thought it was important to take a moment and appreciate all those freedoms we enjoy. The freedom to express our sexuality,

the freedom to find joy in our own bodies, and the freedom to seek out and build connection with others that sustain us. The ability for you and me to wake up tomorrow and prioritize pleasure, both our own pleasure and our partner’s pleasure, that is a gift, and it is a gift we ought not take for granted. Perhaps no one understands that better than today’s guest, David Wichman.

David’s the author of the new book, The Four Rooms, an inquiry into sexual freedom and wellbeing. And in that book, he reminds us that sexuality isn’t just a matter of bodies. We have to think about it holistically, also in terms of our hearts and our spirits. He draws on a lifetime of experience as a sex worker, as a survivor, and also as a fierce advocate for queer men’s sexual liberation.

He reminds us that sexual freedom isn’t just a matter of being able to do whatever we want or whoever we want. It’s also about making space for all of ourselves, not just the good parts, know, the joys, the pleasures, the victories, also the messy stuff, the failures, the insecurities, the wounds. He reminds us that even the simplest act of seeking out touch

can itself be an act of resistance. So as we close out season one, I couldn’t think of a better note to end on. A reminder that queer joy isn’t just a luxury, it’s a lifeline. Let’s listen in.

Trevor Hoppe (02:19)
David Wichman, welcome to the Best Gay Sex podcast. It is a pleasure to have you on to talk about all that you do, including your new book, which we will get to in due course, but…

David Wichman (02:23)
Thank you, thank you.

Mmm.

Trevor Hoppe (02:34)
Let’s situate people, tell folks a little bit about where you’re from, where you grew up, where you became a little sexual human being.

David Wichman (02:42)
wow. That’s we just spoke about me talking all the way around the block. I live in Palm Springs right now. I have been here for 13 years. I grew up in San Francisco and I became a little sexual demon when I was born. I don’t know any better way to explain it because I feel like I have been.

Trevor Hoppe (02:49)
Ahahaha

David Wichman (03:09)
a lifelong sex worker either through survival, the type of work that I do, all the way through the type of work that I do today and doing content and all kinds of stuff. But it is, I have felt like it has either been the foundational part of my life, aside from the many, many years of drug addiction that I lived through. It was still a part of it. So I don’t know how better to explain.

Trevor Hoppe (03:37)
Yeah, little demon, grew up, so you grew up in the Bay Area, is that right?

David Wichman (03:41)
I did,

I did. was actually born and raised in Fremont of all places.

Trevor Hoppe (03:44)
Uh-huh. my gosh. Were your

first experiences then going into the city? Was that like where you would run off to?

David Wichman (03:53)
Early experiences were, although my first experiences were not. It’s kind of the I have this funny little story that I often remember for some reason when I was like in high school, I cruised this guy at a stoplight when I was walking down the street and he picked me up and took me back to his place. And yes, he totally did. It was like this guy, he was Middle Eastern and he was super hot. And we had this very hot, hot

Trevor Hoppe (04:10)
What?

David Wichman (04:21)
sexual time that I was traumatized by a little bit because I don’t know if I had ever been fucked before. And I remember him and it hurt and I remember him being, it’s okay, don’t worry. It’s okay. You want this, blah, blah. was, I was very young. I mean, I wasn’t a baby. I was totally looking for it, but I just often remember that guy because I just think

Trevor Hoppe (04:44)
Yeah.

David Wichman (04:48)
you know, because he disappeared into the ethers and you know, that moment was over. But yeah, that was my maybe that was maybe that was my first time getting fucked. I don’t remember. So.

Trevor Hoppe (04:53)
Yeah.

Uh-huh. Uh-huh. But you knew you

were definitely attracted to boys from a young age. That was not a, yeah, that was not lost.

David Wichman (05:06)
yes. I think everybody

else knew I was attracted to boys at a very young age, too, because I was, you know, relentlessly bullied and my parents even called me a little queer and all kinds of, you know, little horrible things. So, you know, which I talk about in my first book.

I don’t know that they would refer to me as a little queer, but they would definitely make the references, you know. Anyways, don’t… The recollection is traumatic. I have a lot of trauma in my first book, so it’s a heavy duty read.

Trevor Hoppe (05:34)
Hmm.

I can imagine it sounds like there were some experiences that led you down your path. you, what, what, what were those first early experiences like? mean, situate us in terms of you’re picking this guy up at the stoplight. What year are we talking here? Is this the nineties? This is the, ⁓ okay. We’re going back, baby.

David Wichman (06:01)
goodness, this is the 80s now. I’m 56. I’m 56, yeah.

Back back. Even before the phone sex lines, well maybe they were there but I didn’t know about them.

Trevor Hoppe (06:10)
And was

It would seem like like the AIDS was like the backdrop for that experience is that

David Wichman (06:25)

Was it though? I think this is. AIDS was 1981.

But I really didn’t start seeing it on television and really becoming aware of it until I was like 85, 86. Because, know, Reagan and the media were silent about it for quite a while. And it was, and I was sort of in my, I was running away from home and living in foster care and very consumed with my dramatic.

Trevor Hoppe (06:43)
Uh-huh.

David Wichman (07:00)
you know, 15 year old life. So it was not like I was watching the daily news. And it wasn’t like I was really super aware of what was going on in the world. I was, you know, living in a very shadowy time. So, yeah.

Trevor Hoppe (07:10)
Hmm. Mmm.

Yeah. And

you ran away from home. Is that because of your sexuality?

David Wichman (07:23)
No. So I grew up in a very abusive household. I was actually escaped that household and lived in foster care for many years until I was about 17 years old. And then I aged out of foster care. And during those periods of time, I actually lived a really cool, fun experience in foster care. So I didn’t have a lot of sexual experiences in foster care, but I do remember

Trevor Hoppe (07:37)
Mmm.

Really?

David Wichman (07:53)
that I was like out one night. And that is one of the, actually had sex in a Bart, in a Bart station bathroom with some guy I met on the Bart train. You know, I’m in junior high, I’m in high school, know, sophomore year. So those early sort of hookup experiences, those random things would happen periodically. There’s actually an exciting story. These guys, these,

Trevor Hoppe (08:02)
Ahahahahah

Yes.

Uh-huh.

David Wichman (08:22)
girl and two guys, I actually, this is very eighties, they were dressed like the Thompson twins. I mean, literally like they could have been the Thompson twins, right? You know, and I was totally into that. And I used to take the Bart train from my foster home to the records stores in Berkeley and go through and look for my Stevie Nicks and you know, all of my divas records that were coming out. And on my way back to my foster home,

Trevor Hoppe (08:30)
⁓ my gosh. my gosh.

David Wichman (08:51)
these three picked me up and one of the older daddy guys, was fucking so hot. I was very attracted to him and he put the moves, they took me back to their place to smoke weed, And he took me into the bedroom and started playing with me. And the other two, the girl and the guy that were with him, the other queer individuals.

Trevor Hoppe (09:05)
my goodness.

David Wichman (09:16)
on the door and demanded that he get out. They put me in the car and drove me back to my foster home. But that stuff happened back then. I don’t know how to explain it. I didn’t feel like like I totally.

You know, it was like, this is an adventure.

Trevor Hoppe (09:38)
Growing up like in the Bay Area was, I think some people like, I grew up in North Carolina, so I imagine people who grew up elsewhere must’ve had all these resources available to them. What was like sex ed like for you growing up there?

David Wichman (09:51)
Well, what I remember of it is that it was available. I remember having to take a permission slip home to be able to access it, right? To be able to go like, your kid is going to be in sexual education and this. But it was all very. It’s a blur, but the little things that I remember was that it was very clinical and very scientific and it was very these are fallopian tubes and blah, blah, blah. And it was very textbook.

Trevor Hoppe (10:14)
Mm-hmm.

David Wichman (10:20)
And it was like three days. And it wasn’t. And it was junior high school, was seventh grade, and it was like, here you are. This is it. You know, and it was right around the time one of my friends found like a dirty magazine somewhere, like a hustler or something. And there was a naked man with a hairy chest and, you know, in it with a woman. And I was like, my.

Trevor Hoppe (10:23)
Uh-huh.

Yeah.

Yeah.

David Wichman (10:49)
All of those, you know, all of that stuff came up for me and I was like, I really like that. So, but sex education in school was very brief and scientific. It was like taking a, you know, what did they call them? Assemblies. When you went to assembly, was like you go to science lab to talk about sex education. It was very bizarre. But that’s all I remember.

Trevor Hoppe (10:58)
Uh-huh.

Mm-hmm.

Uh-huh.

Yeah,

uh-huh. And you’re going out and finding other sources of information, I guess these like magazines and we’re like porn theaters? Is that still, is that a thing?

David Wichman (11:20)
Yeah.

Well, porn theaters

were around, which believe it or not, they used to be on every corner in San Francisco. Now I didn’t venture into San Francisco much as a high schooler. I did a couple of times and it was one time was really awful because like the BART train used to stop running at midnight. And so if you missed it, you’re fucked. So.

Trevor Hoppe (11:53)
Uh-huh. Yeah.

David Wichman (11:58)
Yeah, so I ended up spending the night at this guy’s house, this guy’s apartment, who was really super creepy. it was really, it was a weird experience. But I only started venturing into San Francisco when I ran away from the foster care system.

I had to go AWOL because I was aging out anyway and I was living with some other people. It’s just a complicated story and it doesn’t need to be in your podcast. I ended up in San Francisco when I was about 18 years old and that is when, you know, the drugs and the sex and the rock and roll and I was very much a wannabe hippie. I explored with a lot of psychedelic drugs in my high school years and

Trevor Hoppe (12:25)
You

David Wichman (12:46)
and San Francisco called to me. And I thought it was because of the free spirit of San Francisco, but also the opportunities for work because I wasn’t, I didn’t have a job. I was basically homeless.

Trevor Hoppe (13:01)
Mm-hmm.

So it sounds like in San Francisco, this might have been the genesis of your sex work career.

David Wichman (13:05)
Yes,

yeah, because sex work for me started out as a survival skill. It was something that I found out that I could do in order to at some points have a place to live, support my drug addiction, to eat, you know. So I would post ads actually and cruise men in the parks and and survive.

And that was how sort of I lived for a really long time in and out of relationships and these other types of experiences. But there was, you know, it was a very sexual time, believe it or not, even though AIDS was a big deterrent back then, you know.

Trevor Hoppe (13:46)
yeah.

Mm-hmm.

And when you’re saying ads, you mean like, are we talking classifieds?

David Wichman (13:57)
Yes, in the pack of the paper. Yes.

Trevor Hoppe (14:00)
What

would your ad say?

David Wichman (14:03)
⁓ man, I just found it too like three years ago. It said, ⁓ why can’t I think of it? ⁓ it didn’t say this, the thing that came out is young, hung and dumb, right? But it was, it did not say that, but it said hot young guy, hot hung guy. remember, right. Cause I could only afford the cheap ad.

I can only afford the text. Like all these other escorts and sex workers, they got to have their picture with their torso. This is so dating me. I actually, believe it or not, the Barrier Reporter has an archive of all of their papers. And by accident one day, I was looking for something completely different. I was like, let me just check. And sure enough, there it was. And I went by this name. I went by a fake name.

John, J-O-N, and I found my fucking ad. I have a picture of it. I took a screenshot immediately. I was like, oh, this is so wild. 1990 something. I don’t want to know. But it was a trip because back then you had to use a pay phone. You had to pay for a pager. And I never had money because I was always on drugs.

Trevor Hoppe (15:06)
⁓ my God.

David Wichman (15:22)
So my page would get turned off. was just, it’s all such a tragic story, but it was the first foray into survival sex work. it was, it isn’t where I realized, but in hindsight, I discovered the work that I do today was sort of found, it was so informative into the world that I live in now.

Because in the initial years, there was this resistance. like, I’m going to sleep with this guy that I don’t know. I don’t even know who’s be in 99.9 % of the time. You don’t. You didn’t know who was behind the door that you were knocking on. And you were just, you know, sort of. Praying to be safe, but then at the same time, you were excited and knew that you were going to get some money and you knew you were going to.

have some hot sex and deliver and get on with your life. So survival sex work is a very interesting.

Trevor Hoppe (16:24)
Hmm.

David Wichman (16:28)
education on sexual freedom, that’s for sure. Because it’s still happening today, you know, and it still has its place. It’s still vital and sacred in my opinion, it’s very important. Especially for marginalized communities of people, trans and other sex workers still do survival sex work.

sustains them rather than being.

you know, without any resources. So it’s really important.

Trevor Hoppe (17:04)
Yeah, I guess you’re distinguishing survival sex work from what you do now. How would you describe what you do now?

David Wichman (17:13)
Well…

What I’ve done for the past 18 years, is not, 17, I guess the first year of my recovery was survival sex work, because I didn’t really know. I had a few experiences, but one in particular that I had was with a man who called me and did not tell me that he was an amputee. And I walked in and I didn’t know, and,

I assume that he was a diabetic in hindsight because when I walked in, in early recovery, so I’m still very raw, and he removed his prosthetic leg and set it to the side and looked up at me and he was just like, is this gonna be okay for you? And like, I was, time slowed down, I was frozen in my skin, I didn’t understand.

you know what, what was happening, you know, like I didn’t get to pick and choose this moment. But something arrived within me that said, this is important. This man looked really miserable. He looked very hurt. He looked wounded. He looked as if he expected me to walk out. I’m assuming maybe even has had that experience on a number of occasions. And I put on my like,

Trevor Hoppe (18:34)
Mm-hmm.

David Wichman (18:41)
Here comes David, smile, and I was like, fuck yeah, that’s okay, let’s go. And I hopped on his lap and we started making out and I started playing with him. And when I say time slowed down, it’s because the memory that I have of that experience, whether it felt that way in that moment or not, is that it was almost as if the brokenness that I saw in his face and the sort of expecting rejection.

began to disappear and this sort of light come on. it was a pivotal moment, not only in my recovery, but in the work that I do in the world today. It was a defining moment. was…

It was almost like an epiphany or a what people in recovery and 12 step love to call a spiritual experience. ⁓ because I left there.

I won’t say changed, but a part of me uncovered, a part of me arrived that said, this is the work that you’re gonna do in the world that’s gonna matter. I get really a little emotional about it because it began to really matter to me. It began to become more about.

what I was learning in 12 step recovery about showing up and being of service and being useful in the world and having a function that says, you know, you can move on through another day without getting loaded. And, you know, I was doing a whole bunch of other stuff. I was walking dogs and things like that, but this work started showing up and marginalized people began arriving in my, across the thresholds that I stepped into.

and

I want to be careful how I say this because I was almost always excited about it. was like, awesome, I get to be that guy. I get to be this person. And it was a bit of ego involved in that at the same time, but it felt purposeful and meaningful to me. And I hope it always felt meaningful to those that I showed up for that were.

maybe untouched for a number of years, maybe isolated, maybe felt in a place of complete despair or invisible. And to a lot of people, not all, but a lot of people that I ended up working with, especially in my early recovery, seemed to be isolated, super overweight.

or in some form or another felt completely sexually incapable or unacceptable. And my job was to show up and pretend like none of that existed in the way that I would without pretending. I would see it, I would acknowledge it, but I wouldn’t make it the purpose for my visit. It was a…

Trevor Hoppe (21:45)
Mmm. Mm-hmm.

David Wichman (21:47)
I talk about it in the book a lot because I don’t know how to describe it, what it was or how it works. And I call it this sense of this sort of like energetic alchemy because I can’t describe it any other way because I’m still, know, like it’s one of the most frustrating parts about writing The Four Rooms was like, how do I really describe what happens in the rooms that I walk into?

Trevor Hoppe (22:08)
Mm-hmm.

David Wichman (22:13)
Because for years it was about justifying, about protecting, and I’m this person and this is I do what I do and you can’t stop me. And it became something much more deeper than that.

Trevor Hoppe (22:24)
Hmm.

Do you use the word sacred intimate to describe your work?

David Wichman (22:27)
I do not.

Trevor Hoppe (22:29)
Interesting. What, what?

David Wichman (22:30)
Yeah, I do not.

I know a lot of people like to use that word. Yeah.

Trevor Hoppe (22:33)
Yeah, it sounds

so rooted in a tradition that has echoes of that. So what do you distinguish as your work from that term?

David Wichman (22:39)
Yeah.

I’m a sex worker and what I do is I provide sexual gratification to people, to men that I work with and

Trevor Hoppe (22:44)
Uh-huh.

David Wichman (22:51)
And I don’t claim to play a part in their healing. I don’t claim to play a part in their uncovering of who they are and their discovery of their enoughness, their moments of being wanted, feeling wanted and desirable. Because that’s what I provide. I think a lot of sacred intimates also provide that.

There’s a part of me that has an opinion about sacred intimacy that is not negative or positive. It just feels healer, descriptive. It’s I’m this healer. I’m here to heal you. And the stuff that I do, I would rather call it more. And many sacred instruments do this now as well. It took a while, but I’d rather witness. I’d rather show up and allow what enters the room to enter the room.

and to be what it is without attaching this discovery or this magnificent change that arrives. more in the school of that person’s already there. They were always there and you’re beginning to uncover that is your work. It’s not mine. I just got to be a tool and an instrument and a witness to be present for it.

I will cry in a heartbeat talking about it because it’s so powerful. It’s such a, from that position of witness and not taking any, not accountability, crediting myself as being some part of their healing process, but just allowing myself to show up as an instrument is,

very freeing for me in a way, it also is, for me, allows me to…

Really.

embody that experience for what it is. Because sometimes it’s not always this ecstatic revelation. Sometimes it’s really difficult. Sometimes it’s really dark and shadowy. And sometimes it can go really sideways for people. You start uncovering part to yourself after you haven’t loved yourself for decades and you haven’t given yourself compassion or grace or the ability to be touched by another human being. And all of a sudden all the other stuff arrives.

And it’s intense.

Trevor Hoppe (25:27)
I guess I’m just struck because it sounds like you’re describing healing.

David Wichman (25:30)
Okay. I don’t even have an answer for it because I don’t have an answer to that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. it’s a word. I don’t know why. And I think because I have this idea around it that I don’t want to take ownership of being the healer. And my copy editor on the back of my first book.

Trevor Hoppe (25:40)
But I’m fascinated by that. I’m not challenging you.

Yo.

David Wichman (26:00)
called me a sexual healer and I didn’t see it until the proof came out. And I was like, how dare you call me a sexual healer? I am not a healer. Don’t you call me a healer. Isn’t it wild? So I don’t, that’s my stuff. And that’s why I don’t.

Trevor Hoppe (26:12)
How dare you!

That is fascinating!

David Wichman (26:24)
I don’t have a negative or positive or an opinion about being called a sacred intimate. Many people will describe the work I do as sacred intimacy, especially when I work with somebody who’s in their last days or hours of their life and things like that, which is really, that’s to me very sacred. I think all the work that we do in the world is sacred and important, especially if it brings meaning to us and to others.

Trevor Hoppe (26:49)
What lessons do you think you’ve brought to your sex outside of the sex work realm from, from that you learned in sex work? Mm-hmm.

David Wichman (26:57)
for myself.

⁓ yeah, well, that that I’m human and that I have this I can answer it really easily because what I notice, which is really interesting, is that I will have judgment. You know, like I’ll have a judgment about a person’s body or another person’s profile or what they say in their description or any kind of you name it. I’ll have a judgment about it. And then I’ll also have this like

immediate instinct to reject. And sometimes I do and other times I’m like, ⁓ there you are. You’re you’re you’re doing that thing that you, you know, hope that others will allow to happen, but live alongside of all of the other assets that they bring into that space. And so

And I also changed a little bit of my languaging about how I speak about the work that I do and the life that I live. Because I’m human, you know, and I get judgy. I get pissy. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I try to be though, God.

Trevor Hoppe (28:08)
Mm-hmm.

Amen. We have to give ourselves grace to fail and to be not perfect because we are not perfect. Absolutely. And thank God for that.

I know. I feel that.

David Wichman (28:25)
It’s folly

and it’s hilarious sometimes.

Trevor Hoppe (28:29)
What is sexual freedom?

David Wichman (28:30)
Sexual freedom to me is really about inviting in all the parts of myself in the sexual ideal that I think I’m working towards or coexisting with, especially the stuff that stops my feelings of being free.

my dick isn’t big enough or my body isn’t like that guy’s body or, you know, I’m not young enough. And allow that to sit at the table with the fact that I’ve had a shit ton of sex, that I have a lot of really great experiences. I have the privilege of doing the work that I do. So I’m already playing from an advantage. That my heart is filled with compassion for myself and others.

So I feel like that sexual freedom on the spectrum of moving through it, moving toward it, I don’t know that sexual freedom exists in a way that we would want it to exist, right? Like for everyone to have equal rights, for everybody to fuck whoever they wanna fuck, for everybody to do what they wanna do.

You know, I would love for that to exist.

Trevor Hoppe (29:44)
Yeah, so it’s not some,

it’s not an idyllic principle where we have a right for every other person to be attracted to us at all times, right? Like that’s not sexual freedom. But there is, I mean, there are questions that I guess I’m interested in, which is like, do you think we all, do we have a right to be desired?

David Wichman (30:05)
My hope is that you feel that you find that you’re desired.

I talk about it in the book a lot, remaining curious about what you desire and how you desire it.

I like for that adventure to be uncovered in a way that is free of judgment. What does sexual freedom look like to you? What is it for you? In society and in the messages and in our imprints and in the messages that we get from the outside world, you could be the hottest, most idyllic person there is and still feel undesirable.

And digging around in that, how do I describe it in the book? I describe it as like an archaeologist digging around in that rubble and looking for those little treasures are the ideas that I try to present that that’s our journey, right? That’s our individual journey. It’s wonderful when another person validates us and says, you’re desirable.

in whatever ways that they do that. And it could be a thousand different ways. And, you know, we idolize people a lot these days, these hot porn stars and the, you know, the cis white male Adonis has been the captivated ideal for such a long time. And now as we start evolving and moving through other body types and other genres of people’s bodies and genders, it’s

it’s becoming more exciting, and it’s also becoming more dangerous, and it’s also becoming more scary for a lot of people. I…

In the four rooms, you won’t find me making declarations, you know, because it’s a book on self-activation and self-discovery and uncovering parts of yourself that are in exile or that are unseen or that are undiscovered as of right now. so.

You know, I don’t know that I have an answer for what is sexual freedom in as a definition. I just know what it if I close my eyes and I think about what it means to me right now, it means, you know, a number of things for me personally right now, you know.

Trevor Hoppe (32:28)
Yeah,

I get that. guess I’m just thinking that a lot of people are probably, you know, concerned about the state of our freedoms in the world we live in right now. What can we do to protect and promote sexual freedom?

David Wichman (32:44)
There’s a part of me what’s going on right now is that I and and I said this earlier to you before we started the podcast is that I feel like this Sexual freedom as a form of resistance is almost becoming a catchphrase and it may be because my book and the algorithm is talking to me like that, but But no one’s talking about how You know just go out and fuck just go out

to the sex club, just go out and fuck your boyfriend or hook up, you know. If you keep having queer sex, you’ll be free. And I don’t know that…

But that’s available to a lot of people. There a lot of people doing self-activation work that doesn’t call them to those spaces, that doesn’t call people to go to the sex club, even though I encourage people to go to the sex club. At least once in your life.

What I like to talk about in the four rooms is about creating connection and creating community and doing what you can and keep creating. And that to me, I feel I remember when COVID hit and I felt so completely helpless. You know, I felt like what can I do? And I’m sitting in this studio that I’m in right now and I’m miserable and I’m not doing anything. Right. I can’t work, can’t touch people, can’t go out, can’t travel, can’t do anything. And I couldn’t figure it out.

After decades of fighting for our sexuality and our LGBTQIA rights and marriage equality and everything, you would think I would immediately know what to do. And I had to be reminded to join the ACLU again, to the Free Speech Coalition, to, as I can and as I will and have done, give money to organizations that matter and write letters to my senators, even if I’m from a liberal area.

and do things like that and make connections with the people I’m closest to, speak to whatever pod of people is around me, because that’s kind of foundational to moving forward. there are people who feel completely helpless and in fear all the time. And when you’re in despair and in fear, the last thing you’re thinking of is getting laid. And so,

If I’m not taking actions to feel on purpose in the world, and I want to talk about this a little bit, then I’m also not allowing myself to be touched. And in my perspective and in the world I live in, if I’m not being touched, even if I’m not self-pleasure, hooking up, fucking with my boyfriend or…

my fuck buddies ⁓ i’m

Placing myself in a position to become in a very unhealthy state of being. And it perpetuates more despair and loneliness and isolation. And so I always say, create connections, do things you’ve never done. In the book, I talk a little bit about how difficult it is to really sit down and tell people that you love how much you love them and about how much they mean to you.

Trevor Hoppe (36:16)
Mm-hmm.

David Wichman (36:17)
Like

I literally intentionally stop what you’re doing and pick up the phone or when you run into Joe Schmoe and you say, know what I got to, I just want to take a moment right now. I want to stop everything. And I want to tell you how much I love you and how important you are to me. And I cannot tell you how

freeing that is and how difficult and rare it can be sometimes for us to get really caught up in protesting and anxiety and doom scrolling and all of that other stuff and living in, you know, the room of the thinking mind, which is one of the sections of the book, we’re obsessed. And if we’re not visiting all four rooms, including the room with the body, it is my contention.

that we are betraying ourselves in a way that can create a sense of not enoughness, less wellbeing.

Trevor Hoppe (37:20)
Well, think,

you know, community is the only thing that’s going to save us for me. So I think you have to have community as a foundation. And so building those connections, sexual or not, and they can be sexual. think people don’t appreciate that a sexual community can be strong. ⁓ and those bonds can, can really do, you know, collectively a lot. So I appreciate that, that we have to.

David Wichman (37:24)
Mm. Mm.

Yeah.

yes.

Yeah.

Trevor Hoppe (37:46)
look inwards to our own community and get that house in order in some ways and invest in that community to have a foundation to build any state of sexual freedom from, because if we don’t have those bonds, then what will that freedom get us, guess. So I definitely appreciate that. just think it’s a…

David Wichman (37:52)
Yeah.

Trevor Hoppe (38:09)
You know, it’s, it’s, so many bold assertions happening every day about the state of our freedom, how much freedom we have or we don’t have. And it, and it’s hard to kind of put your finger on it, but it definitely feels like we want to be mindful of obviously the political climate we’re in. ⁓ but we also have to have some space outside of that. It’s, it’s kind of a.

can feel paralyzing that sort of conflict, I guess.

David Wichman (38:43)
I, you probably remember Dan Savage said that quote recently, the next four years are gonna suck really bad, really bad. And during the AIDS crisis, we danced all day, we protested all day and we danced all night and we, because we needed to build the resiliency, we needed our queer joy in order to have the resiliency to fight and to continue to fight. And I think that that is what’s really important about that.

The catchphrase that I’m talking about is that your queer sex is a form of protest is because in order for you to have in order for us to have the community to sustain the energy to keep the commitment to align ourselves with the people that we love and care about and that we want to protect, we definitely need to be able to build that resiliency. And if you are not visiting the room of queer joy,

your body, your emotions, your sacredness, you’re running on fumes in my personal experience. You’re hiding out in the internet, which I love to do. It’s such a drug for me. Yes, yeah.

Trevor Hoppe (39:58)
Yeah, ⁓ we all do, I mean, right?

So I always like to end with my favorite segment, is Sordid Lives or Untold Tales or S.L.U.T. for short. What’s the sluttiest thing you ever did?

David Wichman (40:03)
Okay.

Ooh.

⁓ goodness.

Gosh, it’s it’s gonna sound so vanilla. And I still do it all the time. I go I go to the sex club and I just because most of my work I’m top and I’m you know, the guy who’s doing all the fucking and I can get very ravenous and I will go to the sex club and I will take all the daddy dick I can get. Just

Trevor Hoppe (40:19)
I love that.

Yeah.

David Wichman (40:42)
bring it on. And I do it because it’s a part of my self care. It’s a part of my mental, physical well-being, my spiritual condition.

Trevor Hoppe (40:47)
Amen.

Absolutely.

David Wichman (40:56)
Take loads!

Trevor Hoppe (40:59)
You know, it’s a homeopathic anti-depressant. It’s all sorts of good for you. Semen is never… Well, I love that. Any particular club you frequent regularly?

David Wichman (41:06)
Yes it is.

Yeah.

Well, when I’m home, I go to 541, which is our new sex club in Palm Springs, which is super, super fun. And it’s busy and it’s super busy on Wednesdays at 10 in the morning till three in the afternoon for some reason, because it’s a, you know, we have people who live here full time retired. And if you’re a daddy lover like me, you’ll, you know, you’ll benefit great. Yes. You’ll benefit greatly from going. It’s like 10 bucks. But I like to get all of them. I like to go to all.

Trevor Hoppe (41:19)

Nice.

Happy hump day.

Okay.

I for that energy. Well, David, if people want to learn more about you and the work that you do, where can they find you?

David Wichman (41:45)
Get Get

Well, I’m on all the platforms under my name David underscore SF xxx. So if you want to see all my salacious content Go there. I’m on you know, I got the website David’s world dot me which is to get my books and to find out where I’m at and my events and things like that and I appear at a lot of sex parties like fornication and stuff as a performer still

to this day, which I love doing. So yeah, but I’m very approachable and I’m very reachable.

Trevor Hoppe (42:28)
Thank you.

love that. Well thank you for all you do to promote sexual freedom. I am grateful for that and all your work.

David Wichman (42:31)
Yeah.

Trevor Hoppe (42:36)
That’s our show for today. Thank you so much for listening. And if you’ve been listening this whole season, I can’t express my gratitude more. It has been a joy and a pleasure to bring this information and these conversations to you, the listener. And if you’ve enjoyed season one, please, please take a moment out of your busy day and leave us a review on Spotify or Apple or YouTube, wherever you listen to your podcasts.

I would be most grateful for some positivity out there. It is really hard to get this content in front of people. There’s so much shadow banning, et cetera. I’m sure you can understand. So thank you for being here. And I would love it if you could help others get here as well. And of course, always as a reminder, if you are not having your best gay sex, I’m here to help.

My services as a sex coach can help you identify and overcome those obstacles that are standing between you and your best sex life. Find out more on my website, thebestgaysex.net. We’ll see you next season and I’ve got some great stuff cooked up for you. I cannot wait to tell you about season two, coming fall 2025. See you later.

OVERVIEW:

What do fisting parties, military discipline, and chosen family have in common? According to Master J. Tebias Perry—a leather legend and author of Leather Mentorship—they’re all part of the kinky, complicated path to becoming your authentic, sex-drenched self. In this juicy episode, Dr. Trevor Hoppe dives deep with Master Tebias about the power of mentorship, the joy of voyeurism, and why the best gay sex starts with trust, curiosity, and a whole lot of lube. Get ready to laugh, learn, and maybe clutch your pearls.

TRANSCRIPT:

Trevor Hoppe (00:09)
Hey, welcome to the Best Gay Sex Podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Trevor Hoppe. Today’s episode is about mentorship. You know, for queer people, family is often chosen, not inherited. When it comes to those key life lessons like learning about sex, relationships, or kink, we really can’t rely on dear old mom and dad for those lessons. We kind of have to chart our own course.

And today’s guest, Master J Tebias Perry, knows that all too well. After growing up in a small central Georgia town, he later joined the military and ultimately found the leather community. And he has never looked back. With his new book, Leather Mentorship, Master Tebias is showing a new generation the power and value of mentorship. And spoiler alert.

Mentorship isn’t about control. It’s actually about a deep form of care and even love. And it might just be the thing that saves us. Let’s listen in.

Trevor Hoppe (01:18)
Master J Tebias Perry. Welcome to The Best Gay Sex Podcast

Master J. Tebias Perry (01:22)
Thank you so much for having me. I’ve heard a lot about you and I’m here in the flesh baby. I’m here in the flesh

Trevor Hoppe (01:28)
We are so excited to have you. Daddy Rod, a previous guest gave your highest praise and recommended you come on. So I’m really thrilled to have the chance to talk to you about your new book and all the activism and work you’ve been doing in the leather community. But before we get to today, I just want to help listeners kind of understand you and a little bit about your story. What was it like growing up in Georgia?

Master J. Tebias Perry (01:51)
we didn’t know what anything was other than our little small bubble. I was raised in a very small town called Reynolds, Georgia, maybe 1500 people or less. White people lived on one side of the tracks. Black people lived on the other side of the tracks. And I am from a middle class family that were entrepreneurs. So it was really, it felt kind of isolated like.

We knew that Atlanta was an hour away, but we never had any interest on going because everything we needed was right But I didn’t know that this big world existed until I got out of Reynolds, Georgia. yeah.

Trevor Hoppe (02:27)
Yeah,

what caused you to leave Reynolds?

Master J. Tebias Perry (02:30)
As I became older and more interested in different things, I saw the world differently from my television and I wanted to do a lot of things. I mean, multiple things. I wanted to dance, but I didn’t find that because I have such a strong religious background and my mom never really technically wanted me to dance. She wanted me to go to college. She wanted me to do the military and that was what I did, but I did feel kind of

I still feel that shit. It’s like I’m feeling it welling up in me now. Like I should have been dancing for Alvin Ailey in which I wanted, but yeah, I made it. I think I did pretty well.

Trevor Hoppe (03:11)
So when you say dance, you mean like professionally dance. I was picturing like boogieing at the club or something, but you mean like literally you wanted to dance.

Master J. Tebias Perry (03:19)
I wanted to dance. It started out with, and then started with Gregory Haines. And I just followed all these dancers like tap dance and jazz and all of this. And then I got, I started looking at a lot of pictures and videos of like ballet. And I was like, I really think I want to do that. Cause I was tall, was slender.

And I never really had the gay thing in my mind until I started finding interest in that, and that I found more interest looking at myself as I think I may be attracted to men. So I think, you know, in the latter parts of my teens, was attracted guys before I graduated high school.

Trevor Hoppe (04:02)
You started to realize that you were attracted to guys at the end of high school. Did you have any early kind of forays into, into messing around with guys?

Master J. Tebias Perry (04:12)
Well, just, you know, just locker room stuff like you just compare and you look down, look down and that was pretty much it. But nothing moving like to the point where we’re touching and feeling and all this.

Trevor Hoppe (04:25)
What were your first adventures into sexuality like?

Master J. Tebias Perry (04:29)
We’re talking about two different things now. You’re talking about with women or with guys.

Trevor Hoppe (04:34)
I mean generally, yeah, so if women was the starting point, what was that like?

Master J. Tebias Perry (04:38)
it really stemmed from from church. So my only interest in sex was the neighbor, the older neighbor who used to babysit us, babysit us, who showed me what it looked like inside. And I really found interest in that, really found interest in it. And that was the thing to do being from a small town. was you guys go with girls, girls go with guys.

And that was the way it was supposed to go. So I did find interest in that, moved on to college, dated Miss Fort Valley State. And then after that, was hell over heels from there when I got into the military. So.

Trevor Hoppe (05:19)
the military was your gateway drug, huh?

Master J. Tebias Perry (05:21)
That was my gateway drug for really, really opening who I was because essentially I’m 21, 22 years old. I’m on my own, I’m making my own money, I’m in my own place. And yeah, I started to explore a little bit more, yeah.

Trevor Hoppe (05:35)
did you know what to do? Like what were you, what, what inspired you sexually? Did you learn from pornography or like magazines or what were the kind of touchstones in your life at that point?

Master J. Tebias Perry (05:45)
VHS tapes. I started out with the VHS tapes and then I wanted to go a little bit more risque so I found interest in bookstore culture which a lot of us do. I mean we all start out with the seedy-ness of sexuality like what the fuck can I get away with? What is the most deviant thing that I could possibly do? So it started out more like the VHS

Trevor Hoppe (05:47)
Hi.

haha

Master J. Tebias Perry (06:12)
the masturbation, mutual masturbations. And then I started with a deeper level of exploring more with older guys, because I’ve always had an affinity for older, more masculine guys. And, you know, back in the day, used to be whoever has the biggest dick is going to top or whatever. So I ended up on this end of the spectrum. So older guys really taught me a lot more about myself.

than people that were my age. So they taught me about leather, they taught me about fetish and other stuff. And it was just so different back then. We didn’t have easy accessibility to the internet. This was Craigslist and the chat lines and other this stuff. The chat line, can you believe it? So yeah, the bookstores, I found interest in those and it was fun. It was fun while it lasted.

Trevor Hoppe (06:58)
Loved Craigslist. Yeah.

Yeah. When did you first start to think that leather excited you?

Master J. Tebias Perry (07:13)
was really a combination, Trev, between the discipline that I had in the military versus the seediest and most gutter shit that I’ve ever wanted to do. It was really a mixture in between that. And once I decided and got a divorce, because I was in the military and married, is that I got to get a divorce in order to do what the fuck I want to do. Because I don’t want to bring someone into this experience with me not being truthful.

with who I am. So true fucking story. I was in the gym. I had just gotten back from Desert Storm. My best friend, Alan, was saying, my God, you’re so huge. Look at your muscles. You know, all of us have this summer of puberty where we just grow up and we become men like overnight. So I came back from Desert Storm, was working out, shaved my head and was at the gym. This older white guy

And I said, can I get a spot? Can I get a spot? The traditional spot in the gym, he’s standing over me, I’m on the bench and I can see everything looking up. Looking up. So that was really my first real encounter with someone who just so happened to have been a kinkster And he showed me everything. It started from just very light cruising.

Trevor Hoppe (08:19)
Hmm?

Huh.

Master J. Tebias Perry (08:36)
weeks and months, if not two years of this cruising and flirting in the gym, know, mutual masturbation. And long story short, I got a divorce and he and I started dating. And he taught me everything I knew at my first duty station. it was, I don’t know if it was love, but it was more me exploring. And he taught me all that I needed to know about leather. And that was, God, that was 96.

  1. Yeah.

Trevor Hoppe (09:05)
Some people hear the term leather and they picture the material. obviously it means a lot more to you than just cowhide. What does leather represent to you?

Master J. Tebias Perry (09:17)
Well, when I first came into it, it was all about the sex. was about only just the conquer. between whipping, flogging,

all the above, but it was more or less about the sex first. And then as I became matured, as my mentor says, as I became matured in leather and in my kinks, found a deeper appreciation for what came before us, like the Marsha P. Johnsons and the leather community, were radical activists who really had a cause and a purpose.

behind the reason of our visibility, not only as gay folks, but leather folks as well. And all of them were on this movement. And I just found more.

interests and I think age had something to do with that. I was getting older. I was in the world in my military career and learning more about the community as a whole. So learning more responsibility gave me more responsibility into what I wanted to be, who I was representing.

and what I was representing and where I wanted to go with that. So My mentors that I took on along the way kind of guided me where I wanted to go. Did I want it to be a hardcore kinkster or did I want to be an activist, someone who was an educator, a creator of content and developing people who were coming behind me. So I became more into an activist on where I am now, an educator.

Trevor Hoppe (10:48)
I know your work right now especially deals a lot in the topic of mentorship when it comes to leather.

Master J. Tebias Perry (10:48)
you

Trevor Hoppe (10:54)
What lessons did you learn from your first mentors in the leather community?

Master J. Tebias Perry (10:59)
I will say this, and this is true fucking story. Now after the first guy that I saw his balls in the gym and we dated, there were some serious pitfalls that I fell into as far as sexual deviancy, not me, but people in the community that would prey on younger guys, prey on Black guys.

You know, I was a flip-flopper for a little bit between top and bottom, between verse. And then for some reason, I just had a bad taste in my mouth about sex until I got a grip on who I was and what I liked singularly, not with everybody else and finding a desire and pleasing people based on their sexual needs, but my own. And then I truly found myself in that.

But with mentorship, the pitfalls that I fell into, I didn’t want others that were…

my grasp to experience what I experienced if I know that I can give them something for them to avoid that. So I wanted to pass on what I had learned and then I wanted it to be more structured. So I started journaling. started journaling and every time I would public speak, you know, one of my mentors said, oh my God, you know, this kid got a fucking book in him. He has a book in him and I can still hear them saying that.

And then it went on to me competing for different leather titles and leather contests. And I became more visible, more well known, which is an honor. You know, it’s an honor. And that’s how mentorship really shaped and helped me find out what my strengths were and how to use my weaknesses for my strengths. So yeah, that’s how it came about.

Trevor Hoppe (12:49)
You mentioned a Black gay man in those spaces and you’ve written a lot about that. What was that like bringing your whole self to that community?

Master J. Tebias Perry (13:00)
know, that’s something that I had to learn also through trial and error as well. Because I’ve heard white leather men say to other white men, white leather men and women that Black people do not look good in leather. Black men in dreads do not look good in leather. So in order to flex what I know,

Trevor Hoppe (13:18)
Mm.

Master J. Tebias Perry (13:27)
turn that anger into more. So I formed a class called People of Color Navigating White Dominated Spaces. This is one of the first classes that I taught. And it really showed me that we’re more alike than we are apart.

Trevor Hoppe (13:38)
Wow.

Trevor Hoppe (13:45)
What was your first IML like?

Master J. Tebias Perry (13:47)
That’s a good question. Actually, my first IML, I did with two of my best friends, Leon and Sean, and we knew nothing about the magnitude of IML.

queen friend made I wanted something like a kilt and there are pictures of me on my Facebook and this thing was with it was with what’s the drag queen used the glue like the

the glue gun, glued me

a kilt together and you know when you put it on my god my chest and my arms were looking good and as we were going to the onyx party back then the kilt was literally falling apart piece by piece. mean like it was in like slats the little slats like this long and it was like each slap was falling apart but I learned so much about how

you know, we think that because we’re younger, we’re invincible. Everyone wants us. And I was just the laughing stock of all of it. I really was looking back now because this thing was falling apart. And it was was hilarious. But the first, my first IML like,

Trevor Hoppe (14:49)
Aww.

Master J. Tebias Perry (15:01)
2005, 2006, it was a mess. A lot of good sex, but horrible experience with my wardrobe. Horrible. Big time. Big time. Big time.

Trevor Hoppe (15:11)
Aw, Mordra malfunction. I love that.

What do you think, why do people travel from far and wide to come to leather events? this is, IML is one of them, but there are many, leather events around the world even. What do people make the pilgrimage for?

Master J. Tebias Perry (15:31)
People come for various reasons, Trev. They come for sex. They come for the brotherhood. They come for the camaraderie. They come for friendships. They come for the debauchery of it all. So, I mean, for me, it’s become more purposeful because now that someone who I mentor is currently

IML Someone who I mentor now is IML. And that is for me looking outside into myself,

Trevor Hoppe (15:57)
That’s cool.

Master J. Tebias Perry (16:03)
some things and qualities and fixings that you poured into one person. And to see that work come out into full fruition is a powerful fucking thing. And I mean, it’s really difficult to explain. Because I mean, I’m such a humble person. And to look at that,

look at that from the outside in. It’s like, that is a huge fucking thing to do. And to be a part of, is to be a part of something that you see from one point and now it’s here. And they’re representing leather on a global scale. So it’s major for me. It’s a big, accomplishment.

Trevor Hoppe (16:46)
What was that feeling like when they became IML?

Master J. Tebias Perry (16:50)
I was on the front row right behind the judges and pretty much the staff. I know the staff because all of us are brothers and friends and all this shit. And when Jamal won, it was just, and I jumped up like I was at my grandma’s church and it was.

It was a spiritual moment for me. And for them, he’s like shocked and couldn’t move. you know, all of my friends around me are trying to run and grab me like, my God, we did it. And it takes a team to make sure that they’re polished, they’re boosted they understand this, the bigger picture. And when they get it, Trev, they just get it. It’s like…

It’s like the little ducklings in the lake. know, the mother teaches them how to swim and you push them out there and it’s just so liberating and it’s major.

Trevor Hoppe (17:43)
wonder if there are similar kinds of structures in the leather world as like maybe in like the ball scene where there are kind of like familial relationships like a drag mom I assume there’s probably similar kind of relationships in the leather world of parenting and nurturing. You mentioned mentorship, but it sounds like it’s even beyond mentorship.

Master J. Tebias Perry (18:01)
It is similar because I’m a huge fan of Pose All of us have watched Pose and seen the houses, but I also know some of the house members here in Atlanta. And it is sort of similar. You you take, take in kids under your wings and you bring them into a space where they’re safe and you teach them everything that you know and what was pointed to you. So I think that there is a lot of similarity with leather.

with leather mentoring as well as the ballroom So I think a lot of ways that it is a lot of similarities

Trevor Hoppe (18:38)
It’s great, because often we have to rely on our chosen family as queer people because our biological family is not always there for us. find that familial bonding in that space? Do you have a close relationship with your biological family? How do you think that factors into your notion of family?

Master J. Tebias Perry (19:00)
And I’ve mentioned this publicly too, and I’m not ashamed to say it, that I, unfortunately, after my mom’s death and even before that, I’ve never really had a relationship with one of my siblings. And even after my mom passed, honestly, I haven’t really talked to them since that point. And that’s been since 2016. And I have friends that I’ve known for 35 years that I talk to every single day.

So, you know, my chosen family and family is what you make it. And it goes back to, you know, blood is thicker than water. And I just really don’t fuck with that because it’s so foreign to me now as an adult and as someone who’s almost 60 years old that I know friends better than I know my family. So I have a close relationship with my family, but with my sibling, I don’t, unfortunately.

now that I’ve found myself and who I am.

Trevor Hoppe (19:56)
A lot of young people are very excited to get into kink and leather but they struggle to find the entry point that’s safe and, and welcoming What tips would you have for young people to kind of venture out?

Master J. Tebias Perry (20:11)
that validation. The second thing is get behind someone that you can trust And number three, always look for a safe…

experiences. That is what’s most important because that groundwork will keep you at a level where you are socially aware of who you’re around at all times. So make sure you’re not looking for any validation. Get behind someone who know what the fuck they’re talking about and that you trust and that you trust and always, always get consent. Always get consent to touch, to feel, to explore.

and make sure that it’s fun and it doesn’t hurt. Well, it hurts at first, but make sure it doesn’t hurt permanently. So those three things, I don’t want to give so much legwork on what people need to do because that’s not really my ministry. I really am all about all of us exploring and finding what makes us tick and what makes us the best version of ourselves.

Trevor Hoppe (21:12)
I’m curious, know that changes over our life course, Some of it is about exploring and some of it changes over time. How do you feel like your desires have changed over time?

Master J. Tebias Perry (21:23)
desires for sex specifically? yeah, I want it. I want it. I want it as often.

Trevor Hoppe (21:26)
Yeah. Yeah.

Master J. Tebias Perry (21:30)
I’m always open, but I think I’m still exploring a lot, if not more so that I’ve always done.

I’m a creature of habit where I like what I like and I don’t apologize for it and it’s if it’s a flip-flop moment it’s a flip-flop moment which happens on Christmas those are the three times when I’m three times that you know what I’m talking about those are the three times of the year when I want to be treated like that but every other time

Trevor Hoppe (21:53)
Uh-huh.

Master J. Tebias Perry (21:59)
I want to do the most sickest, safest, wildest And I have a huge closet and a lot of shit in my arsenal. So that’s what I’ll say about that.

Trevor Hoppe (22:10)
I am not in the leather community, but I am attracted to the sexuality of it all, of course. And part of the reason I find, I guess, just speaking from my own self, I’m a little intimidated sometimes by like the long list of things that guys are into or not into,

Do you think it’s best to find someone when you’re starting out that aligns perfectly with what you’re into or that there are big gaps?

Master J. Tebias Perry (22:34)
I would not focus on just one person in your exploration. You have to try out many different cars to know which one you want to drive. I like SUVs, but I like sports cars as well. I like pickup trucks, but I like motorcycles as well.

I mean, you have to make sure that you specifically explore and learn what you enjoy because no one is going to give you everything you need. And if you’re in this box

all of us need to get out and explore and find what is specifically and what is useful.

Trevor Hoppe (23:13)
A lot of guys are centered on the apps, Grindr, Scruff, et cetera. Do you think you can find sexual connection there?

Master J. Tebias Perry (23:21)
God, I think that is exactly, I’m not gonna say it is the only point, but I think it is a good point as long as you’re being safe about that because with so much over sexual stimulation come risk of all types. So I think it’s a good way to start as long as you make sure you know what you’re getting into and explore. I’ve always said that and I’ve said it publicly.

as well, you know, don’t hinder yourself because just when you stop trying to learn more, you’re 60 years old and you wake up and certain things are not working like they used to. And you’ve got this gray hair on the top and the bottom and it’s harder to go out on the hunt. So I would say explore, explore, explore. There’s this thing. I used to be a member of Onyx.

which is the largest leather organization in the world. And their motto, is educate, empower, and explore. If everyone could learn that and practice that, the leather community would be a perfect template for everyone to start in, even heteros. mean, to do that is everything. So just…

I would tell everyone that’s listening to you, that’s following me, is to make sure you explore to know specifically, if not multiple things that you like and enjoy in the bedroom

Trevor Hoppe (24:50)
I just want to, I want to kind of hone in on that because I think that’s the sticking point for a lot of people is that they don’t always know what is going to turn them on in the moment. And some things can be quite, things, some things you don’t want to do with a stranger like restraint, for example, it’s kind of a challenging idea to do that on a first time meetup. How do you.

How do you know what turns you on?

Master J. Tebias Perry (25:14)
Well, for me, for me, the stimulation is the true barometer for me. and I’m a voyeur, I’m really a voyeur something turns me on when I don’t want to take my eyes off of it, or I want to get into it. So I know that it could be eyes, it could be

lips. It could be a big ass. It could be big legs or it could be a big dick. So I know what turns me on because I’ve gone through the trial and the error of what works specifically for me. Not judging anyone else, but I know when I see it or when I hear it. So it just comes with experience, right? I mean, it’s just, yeah. And I’m not saying go and explore

with a random person that you haven’t taken the time to get to know or that you don’t trust, but all of us have done pickup play. All of us have met people on apps and had a absolutely wonderful time. So you’re not really gonna know things unless you really get out there and do some practicing.

Trevor Hoppe (26:18)
Practice, practice, practice. That’s what I always say. Absolutely. Hopefully, yes, we’re striving for perfection. Absolutely. Never getting there, but trying.

Master J. Tebias Perry (26:21)
It makes it perfect, yeah.

Trevor Hoppe (26:30)
mentioned voyeurism that has kind of a stigma attached to it. It’s this, uh, thing that a lot of us enjoy. think we want many, many, many men watch porn. So in some level we’re, being voyeuristic in that way, but a recent guest kind of transformed my understanding of it by explaining kind of what it did for them. So I’m, I’m interested to hear again.

A little bit more from you on this out of voyeurism?

Master J. Tebias Perry (26:53)
get an experience that I can replay in my mind for weeks, for months, for years. And God forbid if I write it in my journal, I get to really play it over and over and over. So I can sit back and watch hardcore fucking or fisting. it gives me the opportunity

to watch something, but then I’m physically not part of the experience. don’t know where it came from, but it turns me on so much where I can watch a fisting scene or a double fisting scene

And I think what it is is it’s the heroism in that I never thought was possible. Seeing two, seeing two arms in a.

person just in sheer can still hear the sounds like in my head now and I can just get off on it like instantly. know this is a bit much but I’m gonna tell you anyway, my favorite moments are first thing in the close my eyes,

Trevor Hoppe (27:49)
Please.

Master J. Tebias Perry (27:55)
and go into an experience at CLAW or IML or MAL watching the scene with two guys fisting one guy at the same time. And I could literally almost tell.

it and satisfying myself. So voyeurism is something that it keeps me safe in a lot of ways because I do love pickup play, don’t get me wrong, but voyeurism for me, it works for me. The climax that I need and the experience So voyeurism, it’s everything. It’s everything. I love it.

Trevor Hoppe (28:33)
Yeah, you know, honestly, it’s one of those kind of, I guess you could say a fetish that I hadn’t thought a whole lot about until a conversation with a previous guest where he really transformed my understanding and thinking about, for one, as you say, it can be safe where you can watch a scene play out that you’re maybe not ready to experience it or even you don’t want to be a part of physically, but you find erotic. So it can be a form of sex education. And I found that like,

kind of transformative in my understanding. was like, yeah. And of course the erotic charge of it all is more obvious, I think, the kind of, is such a banal word about it, but the kind of, I don’t know, learning aspect to it and appreciation and.

Master J. Tebias Perry (29:10)
Thank

Add to that Trev, I’ve been, of course, my voyeurism looks different sometimes more so than everyone’s. When I’m in a voyeuristic state, I all of my clothes off and be tucked away in a corner somewhere, the people I’m looking at possibly can’t see me and I’m just going to town on myself.

This is a one man fucking show that I just thoroughly enjoy and I can replay it. I can have whatever in my hands or, you know, bound myself, put a gag in my mouth and go to town on myself. And then I can replay it again and again. So, I mean, it’s just, it’s this whole thing. But I’ve also, to add to that, I’ve been invited into scenes

from But sometimes I’ll bow out, no, I just want to sit and watch, you just enjoy yourself. So it goes both It’s sort of pick up basketball. It’s like, you know, coach put me in, coach put me in, but you know, sometimes I don’t want to be sidelines. But it’s major. is, it’s one of my

Trevor Hoppe (30:23)
Yeah, you’re happy on the bench.

Master J. Tebias Perry (30:29)
more perfected crafts.

Trevor Hoppe (30:30)
I guess I wanted to also talk potentially about power play because I, or power exchange, I guess would be the more like appropriate term in the leather community. What, what’s your relationship to power exchange?

Master J. Tebias Perry (30:43)
Power exchange for me is I’m taking someone’s power, they’re loaning it to me, and I choose to give it back or not. That’s the negotiated part where if I have someone that’s in service or collared or I own them as property or a slave, they’re giving me their power and their trust. So that’s synonymous to me. Power is trust. And they loan it to me.

And I choose to give it back to you where I have taught you some things and I give you back a bigger power. So sometimes I give up my power, my birthday or Christmas. That’s my only level of power that I want to give to others. So that’s what power exchange is to me. And I mean, it’s not something that I, that I practice often because I do love pickup play. I do love anticipatory service.

Trevor Hoppe (31:26)
Yeah.

Master J. Tebias Perry (31:41)
I like weekend service, but I’ve had boys, girls before, but that’s just not something constant where I want to be in dynamic MS or DS relationship constantly.

Trevor Hoppe (31:55)
I guess I’m just for people who are in my own edification, like does the master in your name, that, so that does not necessarily reflect a commitment to a certain kind of play or is it? I’m just curious.

Master J. Tebias Perry (32:08)
well, people get mastery in different ways. People get mastery honorifics from the service that they’ve done, the people that are in their, from their down line to their up line that recognizes their hard work. And they bestow covers onto them, which are the Muir caps. And I’ve earned three of those from different people in the community. And note that

We, as people in the community who are influencers, I would never call myself a leader in the community in Atlanta. The community gets to bestow these honorifics onto us. And anyone who says, I’m a leader in the Charlotte leather community, they’re not really a leader. They’re self-appointed because this work that we do, it is really specific work.

And it’s not something of grandeur and self-seeking It’s work that the community has recognized. And we get these honorifics as sir, as daddy, as master from various people in the community. So that’s how it’s come about. But one of my mentors bestowed my Master Cap onto me

So I’ve been fairly a new master. So mastery can come in many different ways, from education to having people in service that recognizes your work.

Trevor Hoppe (33:34)
That’s fascinating. I did not know that system of honorifics.

Is it hierarchical? Like is there a level above Master? Like I’m just really kind of think people might be curious to know.

Master J. Tebias Perry (33:45)
well to me, leadership is not about you being in charge of anyone, but it’s you being in charge of the love and care that you give for the people that you serve. I look at that.

Even people call me a leader all the time and I say, no, no, no, no, no, no. I give servant leadership. I give servant leadership. I’m a servant of my community and I have to pull it back. that’s, it’s a grounding thing because when you are,

in our leather journey, people call you Master Tebias And, you know, once upon a time they called me Sir Tebias This is a honor that’s bestowed to us and it’s not something that should be taken lightly. And it’s not a lifestyle, it’s a life. It really is a life that we give to the people that we serve. And that’s, that’s just the way I look at it. I look at the community as people that I serve and I teach and I educate and

being called master is something that is, it’s a huge honor. And I take a real life responsibility in honoring the people that I serve.

Trevor Hoppe (34:56)
I love that. That’s, I mean, it’s beautiful. I, I literally, I did not know that system. So I really appreciate your explanation of it. I’m sure people listening will find it helpful as well.

Master J. Tebias Perry (35:05)
hierarchy

really. There’s, I mean, yeah, a sir, a daddy, a master, we’re all servants, you know, in one way or another. Yeah.

Trevor Hoppe (35:07)
That makes more sense to me now the way you explained it there. Yeah.

Yeah,

I love that. It’s really beautiful. I want to talk about your book and mentorship and what, what, what

What did you want the book to do and how have you seen that play out on the ground?

Master J. Tebias Perry (35:30)
It’s been so many different things. The book started out with one way. wanted to, like I said earlier, I wanted mentorship to be something that was a succession plan to make sure people did not fall into the pitfalls that I fell into. So I wanted to put something together that was very subject matter specific that you didn’t have to read the whole

500 page book just to get the gist of what I was saying. So I started out with writing certain chapters of subject matters that I know I have proficiency in. And I wrote the chapters down and I just started talking about it. I just started talking about each subject that I knew about and that I had experience in. And I wrote on them until I felt that they were full enough with the information, I had the tools.

for someone else to use. what really taught me and what really made this book

special is understanding the difference between A disagreement and disrespect because that is a huge fucking difference. as I moved into leadership roles, I’ve understood that more clear. We can disagree all day long, but when that disagreement turns into disrespect, I’m going to step away.

Trevor Hoppe (36:38)
Hmm.

Master J. Tebias Perry (36:57)
before I do something that I’ll regret and you surely will regret. you know, I’ve just, it’s a mastery in learning the art of listening to understand, not listening to respond. And I found so much in writing this And I couldn’t have done it without having those tools from Master Bruce, from Master Lily.

and other mentors that I look up to in the community. So all of them are wrapped up into all of these pages that are presented publicly now in other mentorships.

Trevor Hoppe (37:36)
the experience been with people receiving the book?

Master J. Tebias Perry (37:39)
my friends were like, we’re going to go on tour. We’re going to do a five city tour.

right after M.A.L. in D.C. We did D.C., we did Baltimore, we did Philly, we did New York. after M.A.L. we sold all the books, all the t-shirts. It is a labor of love. receiving the book everywhere I go, everywhere I go, Trevor.

someone is asking me something about chapter four, about chapter 16, about the Butterfly Effect, about the forward that Vince Andrews wrote. And Vince Andrews is a good friend of mine. He has several bodies of work out there. And I think it’s been received very well. I’m really shocked and I’m proud of it all at the same time. So I’m just, it’s emotional. mean, it’s emotional because

leather mentorship being my baby, even me wearing a leather dress, gloves. It’s a powerful thing because, you know, the masculinity of the book says a lot with a man, a leather man wearing a leather dress. So it’s just all around powerful.

Trevor Hoppe (38:51)
I noticed that on your Instagram I was kind of perusing through and you definitely play with gender a little bit. think some challenged by the rigidity of kind of old guard masculinity in the leather scene. that seems to be changing. What do you see as the relationship between masculinity and the leather community?

How do you make sense of that?

Master J. Tebias Perry (39:14)
as long as you show up as yourself in a dress, heels, or in the most Tom of Tom of Finland that you could wear, as long as you show up authentically as yourself, that’s really all that matters. So as I’ve gotten older

My ideas of masculinity has changed where now I can be in a 47 pound leather skirt and feel just as masculine as wearing a tight pair of ball-crushing leather pants. So I look at masculinity as something that is inner more so than outward now. So I look at my comfort level of how I show up.

as long as it’s authentically myself, that’s all that really matters. So I look more of the inward expression of myself than outward expression.

that’s all that matters.

Trevor Hoppe (40:07)
As a black man, how does that shape your relationship to masculinity, particularly thinking in the leather community?

Master J. Tebias Perry (40:13)
religion, Trevor, has fucked us up. Religion has given us this scale of what masculinity looks like and what it shouldn’t look like. Notice I didn’t say what it doesn’t look like, but what it should look like. And religion has given us this standard. Put kink on top of that and layer

the masculinity and femininity and all of So I would say do some soul searching and find yourself no matter what it looks like and just be free and have fun

men wore dresses in the Bible before. So it changes up and down. You know, this new guard thing that people are doing now, as old as I am, I’ve embraced it. And in order for us to still capture the ear of the younger guard as someone who’s rooted in old guard, we have to

embrace that. Or, unfortunately, we will be left behind. I mean, the world looks different than 1997, 2000s. So we have to embrace what’s to come.

Trevor Hoppe (41:17)
Mm-hmm.

Master J. Tebias Perry (41:23)
Like we had to embrace what’s to come. They have to embrace us and we have to embrace them as well. So it’s a give and take.

Trevor Hoppe (41:30)
Hmm.

Yeah. Change can be hard. Obviously I can only imagine, the conversations happening within IML about all that must be spirited. I’m sure. But I wanted to make sure I got to the topic of the podcast.

best gay sex and understand a little bit about what you think for you. What does it take to have the best gay sex?

Master J. Tebias Perry (41:51)
The best gay sex. I would say make sure that you have the right kind of lube and make sure that you are working within your limits. That’s the best advice I could give because I mean some people are conquerors when they know that the mountain that they want to climb, that that mountain is too big for them. So lots of lube.

and know what your limits are. Know what your limits are.

Trevor Hoppe (42:19)
I like it. Amen to that. Absolutely.

when you look back at, mean, obviously many experiences. What do you think the qualities for you are of those encounters that were like, you’re like, man, that was the best.

Master J. Tebias Perry (42:35)
Going back to a little bit of power exchange. Whenever I’m in those three times a year, those three times of the year, I do like to flip-flop. And the most enjoyable part of that is for me to let go.

but because of public scrutiny and us putting ourselves on the chopping block in a way to be socially responsible, I have to be cognizant of shit that I say. I still do. I do. So I bear that responsibility. But the best way for me to reach that level of vulnerability with that person.

3000 years and I feel so free whenever I’m experiencing that and it has to unfortunately or fortunately come from the most masculine experience from the dom side of them to me that I can get and it looks

It’s like I’m just being slutted out. It looks almost like I’m being slutted out because I’m in service as a dom so much in play and in different scenes. Those three times means a lot to me. And when I want it, I fucking want it and I want all of it. I’m just saying. Sex looks like for me is I want to be dominated.

Trevor Hoppe (43:37)
Haha.

Amen to that.

Master J. Tebias Perry (44:01)
I’m

Trevor Hoppe (44:02)
Who can relate?

With kind of role play scenarios, when you talked about being slutted out, right? Does it ever start to feel scripted? And if so, how do you like shake that?

Master J. Tebias Perry (44:17)
I’ve never looked at leather and pickup plate as role play. Though with some people I’ve heard it, I’ve seen it, that this is a role for them. This is authentically who I am. Like me going into a scene.

what is part of sex and the words in the exchange of dialogue that we have. This is authentically that I found who this person really is and this is exactly who I am. When I’m just consensually or when I have my arm up to my elbow in your ass, this is authentically who I am. So I don’t find

my description as role-play. I really, really don’t. So the dom, dom sub, daddy boy, master slave.

dynamic, this is exactly who the fuck I am. It’s nothing about the role play of it. Even my aftercare, even my aftercare that I give after a scene, they’re like, you know, I’m fine, I’m fine. This is, and I’m bringing them down off of a ledge. This is the caring person that I am or the sexual deviant that I am, the sadistic fucker that I am.

This is authentically who I am behind these nerdy glasses. So I just, I don’t see any forms of that in what I do. No.

Trevor Hoppe (45:47)
Yeah. No, that’s really helpful. I appreciate that so much because people outside the community, I think that will help them understand what it’s like to be part of the community that it’s for some people may be role play, but as you say, it’s not necessarily that it can be something else too. So I really appreciate that clarification. I always like to end with my favorite.

segment, is called Sordid Lives and Untold Tales or SLUT for short. What’s the sluttiest thing you ever did?

Master J. Tebias Perry (46:17)
ever done was actually in Berlin at laboratory. Have you been?

Trevor Hoppe (46:22)
well that makes sense.

I have not myself, but many of my friends have.

Master J. Tebias Perry (46:26)
my God, it is a, it is literally a sea, a sea of slings and debauchery of men. And

as many people as I could. And this just happened.

Bye.

Trevor Hoppe (46:42)
Nice.

Master J. Tebias Perry (46:43)
I just went around randomly putting my dick in every single hole.

I think what was most liberating from it because you when you show up in these spaces you don’t know who’s going to be attracted to you if it’s mutual or if it’s not but obviously I was the pick of the litter for that night but I it was just so liberating just to anyway that was the sluttiest thing that I’ve ever done was just put my guards down and fuck as many people as I could yeah

at the Love Talk.

Trevor Hoppe (47:19)
Yeah, it’s like the opposite

of the, it’s the opposite of the no loads refuse bottom. You’re like the no hole refuse top. love it. Yes, I’ve heard, I’ve heard of the horse. Well, yeah. If people, I would be fascinated to go for real. It would be, it just like sociologically I’d be very fascinated.

Master J. Tebias Perry (47:26)
Horse market. Horse market. It’s like horse market.

take you to one.

Yeah.

Trevor Hoppe (47:41)
If people want to learn more about you and your book, where can they find you online?

Master J. Tebias Perry (47:45)
on my Instagram you can also find me on Facebook under J Tebias Perry. Don’t send me a friend request unless you inbox me first because I will delete them. So no random friend requests. And you can also find me

Trevor Hoppe (48:00)
Of course, yeah, Instagram is

good for that.

Master J. Tebias Perry (48:03)
Yeah, you can also find me under Bulge Features, International House of Bulge on Instagram.

Trevor Hoppe (48:11)
Fabulous. Well, I hope I see you at IML.

Master J. Tebias Perry (48:14)
It’s going.

Trevor Hoppe (48:15)
I

Master J. Tebias Perry (48:16)
I gotta show you the ropes. I gotta show you the ropes Thank you so much for the body of work that you do for the community. And thank you so much for having me today. Thank you.

Trevor Hoppe (48:18)
I can’t

Fabulous, I look forward to it.

likewise. Thank you. I got to know your work and I’m obsessed. So I’m excited to see and follow your career.

Trevor Hoppe (48:36)
That’s our show for today. Thank you so much for listening. Always grateful. And remember, if you’re thinking, wouldn’t it be great to talk to me about your sex life, kind of hash out some issues that you’ve been facing, my services as a sex coach are designed to help you identify and overcome those obstacles that are standing between you and your best sex life. Find out more on my website, thebestgaysex.net.

Till next time.

OVERVIEW:

What does it mean to be a man? For many of us gay boys, masculinity wasn’t a choice—it was something we were punished for lacking. From childhood bullying to family silence, we grew up navigating a world that demanded we toughen up. But what if masculinity isn’t all bad? What if we can reclaim the good parts without the toxic baggage. This week, I’m joined by sexual health advocate and content creator Nolberto Gonzalez, who’s spent his career helping gay men cultivate pleasure, confidence, and consent. We reflect on our queer boyhoods, the pressures of masculinity, and how we can redefine it for ourselves. Plus, Nolberto spills on his first gangbang as a bottom—because, of course, we do.

TRANSCRIPT:

Trevor Hoppe (00:09)
Hey, welcome to the Best Gay Sex Podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Trevor Hoppe. Today’s episode is about masculinity, a topic close to my heart, not in the way you might think. Like many effeminate gay men, I grew up a little, how do you say, limp-wristed, a little light in the loafers. I had this big goofy gran as a child and a penchant for playing with my neighbor’s Barbies, admittedly.

rather than my own Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, although I did like the turtles, not gonna lie. But when puberty hit my classmates, my happy life descended into a nightmare of bullying and beatings. My classmates called me the F-sler long before I even knew what that word meant or that I had something called a sexuality. I sometimes say that I came out at age 14, but that’s…

a little bit of a lie, like lots of effeminate boys, I didn’t really have the luxury of staying closeted or coming out. It was written on my face. Today’s guests may have grown up thousands of miles away in Puebla, Mexico, in a totally different cultural context. But we share a common experience of growing up as a little queer boy. Noberto Gonzalez.

is a sexual health advocate, activist, turned content creator who has made promoting healthy sexuality his mission in life. For over a decade, he has led erotic hands-on workshops tailored and designed to gay men called Sessiones Explicitas.

And in today’s episode, we pause to reflect not just on those toxic elements of masculinity that made our childhoods so traumatic, but we also brainstorm how can we salvage and recuperate those positive aspects of masculinity, and they do exist, on our journey towards healing. Let’s listen in.

Trevor Hoppe (02:22)
Nolberto Gonzalez, welcome to the Best Gay Sex Podcast.

Nolberto (02:26)
Thank you for inviting me. I feel like very honored because I always like to talk with you. Our conversations are always fun, are always interesting, are always deep. And they have always this personal ingredient that is not just about theory, even if we talk about theory. And that’s what I think. It’s fabulous about you. One of the…

Trevor Hoppe (02:33)
It is a pleasure.

Nolberto (02:54)
hundreds of fabulous things to you all. So thank you.

Trevor Hoppe (02:59)
Absolutely. We met long ago

back in 2007 at a conference in Pueblo where you are from. So can you tell viewers and listeners a little bit about kind of situate them where you’re from, how, where you grew up and, where you became like a little sexual being.

Nolberto (03:03)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, well, I was born in Puebla, which is a very, not a very, very, very small town now. It kind of became big. Two hours far from Mexican city. It’s a very conservative place. It’s a very Catholic place. And I started to get involved in sexuality issues more like in the equivalent of high school.

you and when I started my university studies. First I was interested in sexual health in general and then my path went to HIV prevention and sexual and reproductive rights and then I started to do some work with my own body and my own image about trying to work some kind of some issues around about self-esteem in my image.

how I was perceiving myself and then I started to make some pictures of me every time with less and less clothes and then I started to make adult content and I was like balancing, know, like exploring both sides in parallel. Around these years, that’s when I met you, it was starting to get…

into conferences and seminars and all this academic stuff and in the meanwhile I was like exploring my sexual life first in terms of my body not just in terms of how it’s of how I saw my body or how I perceived my body but also in terms of perceptions of feelings you know like

physical pleasure and this elaborated pleasure. It’s a path that I have continued from all until today, of course.

Trevor Hoppe (04:59)
You, talked about growing up in Puebla and being a very Catholic conservative place. Tell me a little bit about what it was, let’s be like a little queer boy in a context like that.

Nolberto (04:59)
Wow.

Mm-hmm.

It’s very very very hard. It’s like like tons of people will be will feel related it’s a kind of a it’s kind of strange how lots of us have been like together in this feeling of isolation you know

Like being queer in a small place, in a place that is very conservative, in a place that doesn’t have a space for you. I remember, for example, every Christmas, I hated Christmas. And I remember Christmas as this period of time when I was punished for being myself in terms of…

you know, the big family gets reunited and here we don’t buy stuff for everyone because the families are huge in here. So we, we, what’s the word? We write down the names of everyone in little papers and then we give it. Okay. That’s, that’s it. So I remember that every year when someone got my name out of it,

Trevor Hoppe (06:09)
We call it a white elephant. Yeah. Yeah.

Nolberto (06:19)
They have a few weeks of course to buy a present for I remember that I was All the presents that I received were very very disappointed. Sometimes they were kind of cruel. I remember that I was like 10, 11 years old. And I received like a bucket of this kind of giant Lego that are for childs.

that I like in kindergarten because I was like, okay, these people doesn’t know me. And I remember when I was like 13 years, because I have always been like very, I have always you can always tell that I’m not heterosexual, course, you know? And that happens since I was a little child.

So I remember when I was like 30 years old, an uncle of mine gave me an image of Jesus Christ in a cross, like one meter tall. And I was like, okay, this is a statement, you know? And I was like, okay. And everyone else got phrases that they kind of liked because they have always…

Trevor Hoppe (07:19)
Wow.

Nolberto (07:28)
talked about what they wanted, they always talked about their desires, and they always talked about what they did, how they played, you know, as child, we give this information to the adults around us. But in some way, I always have this special treatment, and I was like, okay, I know these people just know me and just know how to treat me, how to face…

the reality that I’m putting on their faces. When I came out of the closet with my mom and my dad, I was like around 14. And it was a very, very interesting mental process that I went to because I’ve always been this anxious person. You know me. I have always been this…

Trevor Hoppe (08:07)
Wow.

Nolberto (08:21)
person with anxiety problems. So I was kind of into a girl during the school time when I was 40 years old. We were really into each other and my mom and my dad were very very excited about she and I being a couple or something.

Even if I was like kind of excited about this, I knew that eventually I would have relationship with voice. And in my head, there was a huge, huge horrible story about me giving the wrong message to my dad and mom that I was straight and then I had to keep on this lie during whole my life, you know?

And then I picture myself getting married for social pressure. And then I picture myself cheating on my wife and living with her with my kids to go out with some random guy in my 40s. You know, I was like a Mexican Telenorada. And then I, and the way I ended this Telenorada was coming out with them. I was like, all right, you know I’m into this girl.

Trevor Hoppe (09:17)
Yeah.

Nolberto (09:28)
I I have no issues with that. I hope you don’t have these issues with that, of course. But you have to know, you consider this warning if you want to, that eventually I will have, maybe I will have this with voice too. Sorry.

Trevor Hoppe (09:42)
what

a fascinating way to come out. You basically came out as like gay but with a girlfriend.

Nolberto (09:48)
Exactly.

And I’ve always had this openness. During some time of my life, I introduced myself as bisexual. Now I identify myself more as queer person. But politically, of course, surrounded by all these HIV calls, of course I’m politically…

Identified as a gay man because I have a lot of a lot of issues that crosses cross matter reality that it makes me configure myself as that but coming back to the Mexican telenovela of course, I that’s the way how I stopped it and That’s the way That that’s the way how I stopped how I stopped the telenovela

Trevor Hoppe (10:23)
That’s how it started? That’s how what?

Nolberto (10:29)
And that’s how I started to face my sexuality in terms of, so I think this is how, I think this is what life is about. Like facing the things as they are, maybe not trying to push things into categories or expectations or desires. And if I’m true to myself,

in this part, maybe the other will have the chance know if they accept me and to know if they there will be no false expectations.

Trevor Hoppe (11:08)
So

how did your parents react when you told them?

Nolberto (11:12)
was another telenovela. It was more like a serious and loud, and that was the second season. Of course, they sent me to the psychologist, of course. I went to the psychologist. She was a wonderful therapist. She was working in the clinic that we went to, you know, for the insurance we have for the government, you know, it’s a free clinic and they have a…

Trevor Hoppe (11:14)
Ha ha ha ha.

Nolberto (11:34)
access to she was very supportive and she was very wise and she helped me a lot to understand that there was nothing wrong with me. She said, and I have this tattooed in my said, I could help you to figure out if you’re into boys, into girls, into both. You have already figured it out. I can help you to figure it out.

Trevor Hoppe (11:46)
Good.

Nolberto (12:00)
figure out. If you are boys and girls and you feel some conflict inside of you, I can help you with that conflict but seems like you have this If you want you to talk to your parents about think I could help you to make a decision, to make what could be good, what could go

and you can make a decision. You already made that decision. I could help you to not feel guilty about who you are, not to feel less worthy for being who you are, but you have already done it. So it seems like now it’s your parents’ problem, and I’m very glad to help them if they want to come here. So I was like, I didn’t expect to get this reaffirmation of…

Trevor Hoppe (12:43)
Wow.

Nolberto (12:48)
Everyone out of my own head, you know, it was very life-changing absolutely that’s that changed my life and from this my I told that to my parents and The answer was so we’re gonna look for another psychologist and I was like Okay. Yes, they were like very committed to that cause They went to the psychologist they want to help but they

Trevor Hoppe (13:05)
no.

Yeah.

Nolberto (13:14)
they didn’t tell me. And you know the anxiety thing. Well, I decided, I think there should be a word in English. I decided unilateralmente, you know, like, just, I decided for everyone, I decided for everyone that I would never talk about it again until they come up with the issue.

And they telling me of course That they wouldn’t talk about the I would bring it to the conversation there was a six-year silence in my was a strange in my house during six years We didn’t talk about Anything more than the daily that’s when I started

high school and university. Of course it changed my dynamic with my family, of course. We were like strangers to each other. six years later, you know in Mexico we have this altars to the deaf people on November, Dia de Muertos. I started to work an association and we made an altar de Muertos, we made an ofrenda.

for LGBTQ people who committed suicide. We put it in a house of culture, it was a building in Puebla that works culture issues. It was kind of a demonstration. You get your group, they sign up and they show your

My mom went to that exhibition because it was a permanent exhibition and it was like a coincidence. I was there and she went into with my sister. And then that’s when she realized that I was doing all this stuff and that issue didn’t stop for me. did stop this conversation at home, of course, I didn’t…

Trevor Hoppe (14:59)
in those six years, yeah.

Nolberto (15:05)
I couldn’t stop working on it personally for a second. No one talked about it during the event, during the demonstration, you know? later at night, when I arrived home, my mom was washing I told him, well, thank you. So for what? Thank you for not making a serious scandal because that’s what you normally do.

you know, thank you for behaving, for being an adult. And she was you know, I haven’t talked to you about it and maybe this has been a mistake, but I want you to know that I’m open to talk about this every time you want to, that I been waiting for a chance.

from you to tell you that I’m more than okay with that, that I love you a lot, but I didn’t want to bring up to the conversation because I thought it would be invasive. And I was like.

You know, it was a very, it was a very strange feeling between reaffirmation, like, okay, I really wanted this. I can’t blame you for making this decision because in some way I made the same decision as you. In my mind, I was protecting you from the reality and in your mind, were protecting me from reality.

Trevor Hoppe (16:03)
Yeah.

Nolberto (16:26)
I can’t blame anyone but the culture. I just blame the culture. we kind of lost six years. After that six years, I had a full conversation with my parents. They told me they went to the psychologist and they loved her, but not as obsessed as I was with her. But then it happens that

they found a friend of them in the You know, there’s always this friend who has maybe not studies in some issues, but you give him, you give to that friend the ability, the title of that wise person, you know? There’s always someone who maybe didn’t study a lot, but there’s someone that you can fight, you know?

Trevor Hoppe (17:10)
Yeah.

Nolberto (17:17)
So they found this friend he has a very way He had a very strange advice for them but it worked in them and I’m thankful for they told me, we found this friend, we talked about this, we had just came out of the office with the psychologist like feeling kind of, you know, like confused and…

we saw this friend and he saw that we were like intrigued or worried and concerned basically what he told us was okay but would you love yourself right? He asked me

Yeah, but maybe people will treat him bad. Uh-huh. So, you love him, right? So you want him not to feel rejected on the outside. So you want to make for him a nice space at your home, right? And it was very effective for them. I think it maybe was a kind of a…

Maybe he speaks on their language. And I was trying to speak in another language, you know. Maybe it’s a thing between generations. Maybe it’s something that has to do a little bit more with maybe not trying to explain a lot of things, you know. And maybe that’s why it works on or on their generation.

Trevor Hoppe (18:18)
Yeah.

Nolberto (18:36)
I’m telling you to do this because I’m your mom and that’s enough reasons, you know? Maybe. Yes, exactly. And I’m very thankful for that. It took six years to get to this conversation, but I do feel bad about it. I feel that now my relationship with my father and my mother is great. I love my father. I love my mother with all my heart.

Trevor Hoppe (18:41)
Right? End of story.

Nolberto (19:00)
And they have known my boyfriends. They have known my spaces. Once I moved to Mexico City, they have came and visited. We have a very, very good relationship now. I’m still very far from my bigger family because I don’t think I…

Trevor Hoppe (19:18)
the uncle who gave you the cross

Nolberto (19:20)
Yes, I don’t know.

Trevor Hoppe (19:20)
you may be not so close with.

Nolberto (19:22)
Eventually some cousins come to me telling me that they had the courage to come out because I was the first one in the family. it also helped a lot that I was always this kind of nerdy, intelligent guy, you know, like a…

Trevor Hoppe (19:34)
That’s so great though

Nolberto (19:43)
this library mouse, have this expression in Spanish. And I was always that person. So I got good notes, was like, in my family I was known for the one that is going to be very, very intelligent, very successful and, know, smart and everything. So that was like…

the good quality that my family recognized about me and that in some way still put me on the map and I was very very happy that some of my cousins has reached me years before to tell me that okay I did it and thanks to you for doing something for not keep quiet

Remain silent.

Trevor Hoppe (20:30)
that’s really great that you were able to be that kind of trailblazer. certainly experienced the same similar thing in my family and my community where I was definitely ahead of the curve coming out at 14 also. So we share that experience. And I also, my parents took me to the psychologist also, and then the psychologist ended up being really supportive about the whole gay thing. It did not go the way that I expected it to or

probably the way my parents expected it to be honest. I’m grateful for that in retrospect. So.

Nolberto (21:04)
It’s

very interesting how we… Sorry, it’s just something that has just crossed my mind. There’s a lot of things that we need to change because it’s very unfair to put this pressure on 14 years old individuals. It’s very, very, very strange. And some things just have never changed. well, that was just the idea.

Trevor Hoppe (21:19)
yeah, I mean…

you’re growing up in Puebla, you’ve come out to your parents, but there’s the six years of silence. I presume probably your first sexual experiences probably took place sometime in those six years. Is that a fair assessment? What was that like?

Nolberto (21:45)
Yes, ah, that was very, very interesting, dad’s story.

I was in high school, I was 16 years old and I don’t know the age of the other guy but I’m very very sure he knew that I was underaged of course because they were in 2002-2003 to have internet in your house was a luxury you know

Trevor Hoppe (22:02)
Hmm.

Nolberto (22:17)
We had the cyber cafes. And you go around to computer per hour. And my God, feel like my teachers talking to me about the 60s. And then, and by that time, and at that moment in history.

Trevor Hoppe (22:28)
Right? It feels like a way, way back again. Yeah.

Nolberto (22:36)
We didn’t have apps in our cell phones. There was chat rooms. There was gay.com. And there was Latin America category. And there was gay men in black color. I remember that I was just… I went there. There was a cyber cafe out of my… just crossing the street.

Trevor Hoppe (22:45)
Yes.

Nolberto (23:00)
from my school. A preparatoria. Everyone is underage in preparatoria. So you do the math. So the guy who was in charge of the place, some time, know, some day I was like chatting with a random person because you have no information but the nickname. And yes, of course. Yeah. I think telenovela runs through my veins because I’m Mexican.

maybe and then in the momentary and then i receive a message and you insert the music of your favorite and then i’m the guy next to you with a i don’t know with a red shirt and i was like

Trevor Hoppe (23:25)
my gosh, that’s…

Nolberto (23:37)
You know.

Trevor Hoppe (23:40)
Whoa.

Nolberto (23:40)
I was very very

happy because I really like that guy. I found him very attractive. He had this nerdy look. He had a beard. He had a wonderful belly. He was cute. He was really really really cute. And I don’t remember how.

Trevor Hoppe (23:45)
Yeah?

Nolberto (24:02)
but sometimes I had to go to school on Saturdays for some signatures. Actually, I don’t remember clearly, but sometimes we had to go to school on Saturdays. And most of the things around the school were closed, and you have a lack of structure on these Saturdays. So I decided that I was…

trying to kill some time at the cafe and it was closed and I was getting out of the building where it was and I ran into that guy. I like I’m just gonna check some things in there so I will not be open today I’m sorry but if you want to join me to get these things you know upstairs just you and I was like alright that’s it yeah

Of course it was unprotected. Yes, it was unprotected. Of course I was yes. And I’m talking about 2002. It was way before prep. It was way before my first HIV test. It was way before a lot of things that I know now. And it was way before a lot of things that I consider. There are like a…

like the non-negotiable things that I have put myself in my sexual life. But there are things that I have solved later. In that time, I wanted to have this reaffirmation experience, you know, because I knew I didn’t feel pressured about there’s some experience that you’re losing that you have to, that you need to have now. I was like…

I wanted to prove myself that I was attractive to someone. I wanted to prove myself that someone would like to have this interaction with me. I didn’t want a boyfriend. a relationship. I didn’t want a happily ever after story. I wanted to feel desired. And that’s what I got. It was a sloppy yes.

It was it was not really really good He had one is the most gorgeous sticks I have ever seen in my life. I remember clearly

and it felt great. But yeah, it was the idea. But I have no regrets.

Trevor Hoppe (26:27)
What more can you ask for, for a first time?

Nolberto (26:28)
Yes, exactly.

I would have liked to have a little more preparation for that. You know, I have always been this very open person about things. So I wish I was the kind of person who would always carry condoms, for example. But I didn’t come up with the idea until that day.

So I was like, all right, I would have changed that to feel safer, to feel more secure, and to enjoy a little bit more of the experience, yes, because I was worried some days before, of course, I was very, very in terms of the experience and expectations, was absolutely satisfied, five stars.

Trevor Hoppe (27:14)
I love that. I love to hear that. that’s an amazing first time experience. I’m glad it was positive and fulfilling. Do you remember some of those early sexual experiences maybe that didn’t go so well that kind of you learn some lessons the hard way?

Nolberto (27:30)
yes, of course. And I had time to think about it. I had time, but there’s always so many things. The one that I have talked about the most, this year, some friends and I were talking about how the traditionally attractive people, know,

Trevor Hoppe (27:34)
Yeah.

Nolberto (27:50)
Egemonico? What’s the word in English for Egemonico? Egemonic? No. Egemonic, yeah. We have like this kind of… I don’t know. I won’t call it an idea because it’s more than an idea, but I won’t say it’s evidence. But well, you will get it as long as I start there. Yes, yes, exactly. Yeah.

Trevor Hoppe (27:55)
Hegemonic,

mainstream beauty norms is that is that

Nolberto (28:14)
Most of the time, the people that have the most of these attractive traditional features, most of the time, it looks like they seem to only need that and not to put some effort, not to put creativity. I’m just putting in here my attractive, my wonderful nose, my huge spectacles, you know, my muscles.

Trevor Hoppe (28:29)
Alright.

Nolberto (28:37)
And because I’m the ugly one, I’m putting all the effort, you know? So, we have this saying that handsome people have horrible thugs, basically. I remember in kind of these days, I was in Manhattan chatting in that siberica. Well, I had to go to another siberica.

So I was chatting with a guy that lived like two blocks from me, from where I was living. And it was this beautiful, traditionally beautiful, handsome man, very white skinned, you know, Mexico is a very racist country. Don’t let them try to convince you of the contrary. Very white skin, green eyes, a wonderful nose, very nice body, everything.

He sent me a message, hey how are you? Let’s meet. And I was like, I would gladly do, but I have to present a test in my school, so I don’t have time now. Can we do tomorrow? And his answer was shocking. I wish I could translate it fully. He was like, no, no, no, it’s not that I’m like you. I don’t like you, I’m just horny.

And I was like, how very down are you? know? And, course, yes, of course, I felt offended. Yes, of course, but I decided that that was going to be the only interaction. A few weeks later, he writes to me again, and I was like, oh, that was the guy who was rude with me.

Trevor Hoppe (29:48)
you

Fuck off!

As you should.

Nolberto (30:16)
And he invited me again. And I went.

Trevor Hoppe (30:20)
yeah, you capes.

Nolberto (30:21)
Because I always learned the

hard way. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I always learned the hard way. Yes, I don’t learn. I love to. I love the performance of learning even though I don’t learn. But if I enjoy the process, what’s the problem? So I decided to go with him. I entered to his bedroom with my backpack. I turn around to put my backpack.

Trevor Hoppe (30:26)
up in there.

Yeah.

Nolberto (30:48)
on the floor and started to get undressed. And he is on the bed with his niece in here, know, like showing his book, like, now do it. And like sniffing his, opening his bottle of poppers, you know. And I was like, okay, your mother ready, baby. I was trying to…

Trevor Hoppe (30:57)
Uh-huh.

Yeah.

Nolberto (31:09)
I don’t know, it wasn’t even my heart inside him. And he came. And I was like, oh. And I was like, what a waste of time.

Trevor Hoppe (31:16)
Uh-huh.

we have this song that’s from the 50s or 60s, I think here in the United States. It’s like, if you want to be happy for the rest of your life, never make a pretty woman your wife. And I feel like it’s kind of the same, same idea here, which is like hot guys are very pretty to look at, but sometimes they can be really fun, obviously, but they’re not always in it.

Nolberto (31:35)
Me- yeah!

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Trevor Hoppe (31:45)
You know, they don’t have to bring as much to the table in terms of skills and talent sometimes. on that body. Stop relying on that body is what, you know, the RuPaul expression. Yeah. So I feel that.

Nolberto (31:49)
Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Exactly Yes, yes sometimes

Yeah, and I think it’s it’s very important to think that I always try to to to bring to myself What I think about other people? Even if I even if I Even if I’m telling you this story about this guy who was very very rude relying in some qualities of his body

I always try to think, have I some time behaved similarly? Do I have some behavior sometimes that may look like the same? And I think that it’s very important to think that maybe not about physical features, but I do rely on some qualities that I have. And I know…

that sometimes I have been abusive in that terms, of course. Yeah, I think I have if you want to change something, you have to acknowledge it first. So I was like, yes, exactly. And I’ve always tried to make this intellectual effort, but okay, there are some moments, there have been some experiences when I have tried to…

Trevor Hoppe (33:00)
You gotta start with yourself.

Nolberto (33:14)
take advantage of something or being unfair with some other people because I have pictures of the other think something important to think about. Exactly.

Trevor Hoppe (33:24)
We’re all human, right? We’re all human and we’re

on those apps and we’re horny. And sometimes we treat people with the same kind of disrespect that we get. And it’s really, you don’t even realize sometimes you’re doing it. There can be these power games where people play in terms of, you know, leaving you on read, like they’ll read your message, but they won’t reply. And you’ll be like, and then I’ll find myself sometimes doing exactly the same thing.

Nolberto (33:30)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Exactly.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Aha.

Mm-hmm.

Trevor Hoppe (33:52)
For many different reasons. Sometimes you’re not being rude. Sometimes you just don’t know, you know, if now is the right time. you know, you have to reflect back on yourself and think, am I also doing and contributing to this pattern and how do I change it? And one of the previous guests, Shane Lucas, that I interviewed talked about looking for people that are curious, that want to know things about you and that you want to know things about.

Nolberto (33:58)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Trevor Hoppe (34:21)
And I really try to keep that. It’s, hard sometimes cause people don’t like to talk a lot on those apps, but, but if you kind of select for people who seem genuinely curious about you and what turns you on and that you’re also curious about them and what turns them on, I think that can be helpful to weed out those guys like you’re talking about who are not curious at all. and, and not good fucks as you said.

Nolberto (34:27)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Exactly.

Yes, exactly. And it’s a lack of reflection, it’s a lack of curiosity. It’s like taking for granted that this thing will directly bring you to another one. And that this is all figured out because there is this other thing in the equation. And it’s just unreal. But some people take it for granted.

Trevor Hoppe (35:13)
Yeah.

Nolberto (35:16)
I can’t blame no one but the culture again, but well it happens

Trevor Hoppe (35:22)
Yeah, I had an experience ago,

sort of similar to what you described where this guy messaged me and couldn’t meet up right then. And I said, I said no. his response is like, wasn’t really into you actually. I just thought you would be easy. I was like, great. Well, thank you for clarifying that. What the fuck? Like.

Nolberto (35:41)
Okay.

That’s a very

rude thing to say.

Trevor Hoppe (35:47)
It’s awful. I think, yeah, and that can really…

Nolberto (35:50)
It’s awful. I remember my next boyfriend.

My next boyfriend told me the very same thing. You have people behind you. You have all these kind of people who invite you to dinner or something. But not because you’re handsome, because you’re easy. And I was like, okay.

Trevor Hoppe (35:56)
Ugh, I’m sorry.

just the audacity to say that and it’s a lot. It’s a lot. So you had to kiss some frogs to get to the good stuff. is today, what do you think the best sex looks like for you today?

Nolberto (36:11)
Exactly. Mm-hmm. Yes.

Yes.

the best sex looks like…

like two or more present their consent and their craziness in a playground. To me, good sex is a playground. To me, good sex is about taking pauses, you know, like, let’s pause it for a moment, and restart again. Good sex is about… Let me catch some air.

sex is about…so good, should I go upper? should I go lower? sex is about a good laugh in between good sex is about the chance to not being worried about how you are being you know

Trevor Hoppe (37:02)
Mmm.

It’s real.

Nolberto (37:13)
For me good

sex is It’s like I used to think of good sex like my own version of my own porn movie, you Considering there’s a fiction of course, you know? like the main videos that we I used to think of my sexuality as like my best sex, my version of…

best sex would be a porn clip directed for me, by me, you know? But I have started to make it a little more complex because it’s not about how it looks, it’s about how it feels and it’s about how the environment. So it’s the clip and they’re behind the scenes and the process of being right in it during the time you’re filming it, you know? It’s everything happening at the same time.

Trevor Hoppe (37:43)
That’s a nice way to think about it.

That’s right.

Nolberto (38:07)
I think it’s possible when you have the chance to be yourself and to ask for the things you want in the moment and you are open enough to let the other person be. And that’s great. I remember I had one of the best experiences some months ago with someone that I was…

He was attending one of my courses years ago and then we found each other again on Instagram and he was like, were the teacher in that, and I was like, yes. He was like, I wish I could have the chance to take you to dinner after this and everything. And I was like, well, you have the chance now. So we met, we talked a little on Instagram. We talked about…

Trevor Hoppe (38:48)
Yeah

Nolberto (38:53)
fantasies, we talked about things that we wanted to do, things that we’d like to. We defined like the base, the basics, sorry. And we had one of the best sexual encounters of my entire life. I was like, my God. mean, he was an athlete, but not exactly, not just in physical terms, you know?

because you see when a muscle is trained but in the conversation you can realize too you can tell when communication skills are trained too you can see when when when honesty is trained too you can see when

You can tell a lot of things when you talk to someone. So it was very, very apparent. We were like having fun. It was about having fun. And it was great. I mean, yeah.

Trevor Hoppe (39:49)
That’s awesome. I’m going to record this question so I can edit it back into that. So I can energize.

Nolberto (39:50)
Yeah. huh. Okay. huh. Okay.

Okay.

Trevor Hoppe (39:57)
But you’re sorry, hands will be problematic with, yep.

Nolberto (40:00)
sorry, Thank you.

Let me do these things before.

Trevor Hoppe (40:03)
So can you two…

Nolberto (40:08)
Is it my hair is in this phase when it’s growing but it’s not short but it’s not long exactly and it falls off? Yeah, it’s better. Thank you.

Trevor Hoppe (40:20)
So can you tell me about one of the best experiences that you’ve had? I’m just gonna edit that in too so that you can then tell that story that you just told. For the clips, it’s good to have a back and forth. So like I said, when you just stick to one story, like don’t, I remember a time when I just stick to the one. will be easier, I promise, in the long run.

Nolberto (40:24)
Hmm

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yes.

Yes. Thank you. I just let carry the way.

Trevor Hoppe (40:47)
Sorry to interrupt again.

I know, I love that. And it’s usually amazing just for the Instagram stuff, it has to be so tight. know? me figure, know where I was gonna go from there.

Nolberto (40:57)
I know. Yeah.

Trevor Hoppe (41:01)
So are you a lights on or lights off kind of guy?

Nolberto (41:04)
My lights on… that’s a good question. My lights on… It’s not about physical features, but there has to be something physical that attracts me, of course. Even if it’s… beard, chest, legs, whatever. There has to be something physical, yeah. There doesn’t have to be the whole package of physical features that I will…

like or if I detracted. I need a good laugh. Of course I need a good laugh. I need a good sense of humor. need a curious person. I need someone who encourages you to talk. I need someone, what turns me on is someone that when you say something that…

can be kind of censorship reason, that person asks you, and what else? You know, with very interest. I love interest in passionate people. I love people who, what turns me on is people that you say something about some situation, some fantasy, some…

that you want to do and and they took it and it and if you are this have you ever tried to imagine if you are this or if you put this other element I was like okay so someone who interacts with your desire that always turns out it also turns me on of course when someone has this

this ability to pause things, you know? Okay, let’s bring some water. Are you okay? Are you feeling It doesn’t break my fantasy. Aha, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It doesn’t finish my fantasy, of course. It makes me feel like, okay, we’re taking care of each other, too. That’s something that should be on. What turns me off, it’s way easier.

Trevor Hoppe (42:40)
ability to take a break. Yeah. Yeah.

Nolberto (42:58)
The people who just lay down and wait for you.

Trevor Hoppe (43:00)
Well,

let me ask you that. know, sorry to keep interrupting. Now that I’ve edited so many of these, I just know what’s gonna work best. And if I ask you that question, will be, I can use it more.

Nolberto (43:06)
Tell me about it.

Trevor Hoppe (43:14)
So we got a good idea of kind of what turns you on, what turns you off.

Nolberto (43:18)
Oh, it turns me off. It’s a little easier. The people who just lay down and make you do all the effort. The people who just throw some crumbles of information and you have to figure out all that will happen.

Trevor Hoppe (43:24)
Yeah.

Nolberto (43:36)
It’s not that I need three or four hours encounter. I’m a big fan of quickies. we have to settle. We have to decide it together. know? I turn up entitled people.

Trevor Hoppe (43:44)
Really?

Nolberto (43:51)
I hate when people are just like, okay, but you see this beauty here in front of you, so you want to worship me, right? It’s like, have, yes, it’s like, I have not decided that and you will not decide for me unless it’s my fantasy in that, in which case I am still deciding, you know? That’s kind of what turns me on. People with bad moods in terms of, you know, in…

Trevor Hoppe (43:57)
Yeah, this, yeah.

Right.

Nolberto (44:19)
People who are rude, like people who are, I’m tired of. That’s why, it’s very easy to turn me off. And it’s very easy that if some people has already turned me on, it’s very easy to turn me off. I have learned to, I have learned to not continue with interactions that I don’t want to. And I have.

been and I have learned that I can stop being afraid of finishing an encounter if something doesn’t, if I don’t like something and I’m very, very, very in peace with that.

Trevor Hoppe (44:57)
Yeah, amen to that. How did you learn to say effectively? Because I think that’s what’s so hard for some people is not just, don’t want to have sex with you, but maybe I’m going to leave this situation because I don’t feel good it.

Nolberto (45:10)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well first I have to remind myself that this is not the encounter or this is not the last chance that I will have to have an encounter. I remember I have to remind myself that there is a lot of people that are into me that finds me attractive.

that want to have a good moment with me sexually and that makes me think with more confidence like, alright, this time it’s not happening, next time without a person, it will happen because there will be some other people, there are some other people that will be more compatible with the things that I want and the things that I want to

Trevor Hoppe (45:49)
Peace out.

Nolberto (46:02)
to bring to the and I will be more compatible with some other if it didn’t work, thank you for your time, my best wishes And that’s it. Yes, yes, exactly, yes. Yes, I’m not… Yes, yes.

Trevor Hoppe (46:13)
for now. I understand that, And

what you think, you described kind of the characteristics of what you think the best sex looks like for you. Can you, looking back, is there an encounter where you’re like, you know what, this is pretty much close to the best?

Nolberto (46:25)
Mm-hmm.

Close to the best. Close to the best. This guy that was my student in the course that I teach, like some years ago. There’s been some, I think that since 2015, maybe 10 years ago, I started to develop this workshop.

Trevor Hoppe (46:43)
Mmm.

Nolberto (46:58)
that is called Sessiones Explicitas. That is a sexual health workshop for gay We work at Naked. So from that course, I have developed some small workshops, Sara, short versions with very specific objectives. So there was some guy who took the course with me years ago.

Trevor Hoppe (47:00)
huh.

Nolberto (47:21)
And like some months ago, found me on Instagram and was really wanted to have some interaction with you after that cause. But I found it problematic. I knew that it wasn’t going to be the most ethical thing. well, now that I have found you and some years have been, I wanna talk about it. And I was like, I think this is a great time to talk about it.

And we talked a little about fantasies, we talked a little about situations, we made our schedules to work on together and we had a very, very good time.

We had this basis very, very clear about what we wanted to do. And it wasn’t like we had any script of what to do and what to say, but we had a general idea. And from that, we started to just to have fun and just to let each one carry their weight. was very, very, it was a very, it was about reaffirmation of course, like.

there was always this communication verbally about this is what I wanted to do, like yes, it go, and I finally have the chance of having, know, with all this desire and the tone of the voice, you know? And there’s also a lot of things,

Involving the whole body, you know not focusing in some parts of the body. It was like a whole experience and it was Like let’s make a pause. I need some water so we can keep on continue like this it was it’s very interesting how you can be like kind you’re like craving for someone but at the same time that you feel like you have

Praising for someone you also know that you still have time to make little pulses so you can still enjoy the situation So it was very very hard and intense sometimes, you know, and it was very very calm sometimes and I think it was about balance It was about Talking about what we wanted in the moment and and to continue

to the other one if we wanted upper the level making it low. It was like, it was great. It was like close to the best. I wouldn’t know which one to call my best but that was definitely one of the most recent and the most pleasurable ever.

Trevor Hoppe (49:54)
Great. You mentioned these workshops. Tell me a little bit about what you would do in these workshops, because I’m sure people are curious.

Nolberto (50:00)
Yes, of course. Yeah, we’re glad to do. Well, so Cedric’s Explicit Desks, Explicit Sessions, is a workshop that I developed with some inspirations in some Tantra workshops that I went into sometimes. You know, Tantra is more spiritual, and I make my workshops a little more practical, because I…

I don’t have a spiritual training in anything, but I do have this experience and this knowledge in practical things about sexual hell. I forget the other words, sorry. But it’s something like it’s about your own body and how you think of your own body, not in a spiritual…

terms, in just physical terms, know, very, very practical. And I came up with the idea of first, we need to learn about sexuality more relaxed environments and we have to give ourselves a chance to learn in terms of pleasure, not in terms of guilt.

Trevor Hoppe (51:06)
Yeah.

Nolberto (51:08)
or in terms of what could go wrong. And if we think of terms of what could go wrong, we have to think about what can we bring to the table that has been wrong during our lives. So there is like two big, I always say that this workshop has two strong legs. The first one is this, about experience, of course, and you have the chance to.

We talk about consent in every exercise. We always talk about consent in every exercise because I always have an assistant with me. Like a magician, there’s always one person with which I show the exercise first with that person. Okay, the next exercise is about this, this, and this. And I do all the exercise with the person that I have for demonstration.

Trevor Hoppe (51:46)
Yeah

Nolberto (51:59)
And then I asked to the team, to the people, is there any one of you that doesn’t want to do this exercise? And if someone raised their hands, it doesn’t matter, it’s great. You helped me to work on with the materials, with the message, oil, and all these things. I mean, you can learn maybe by not participating.

But if you participate, I want you to feel safe and I want you to feel comfortable when you participate. that’s the first thing. We talk about sexual health in a very consent, with a very specific perspective of consent. Because the other lack of the workshop is that even if we even if the people that signs up to the workshop, maybe some of them are gay men.

some of them are non-binary people that have sex with gay men. The thing is, there’s a lot of violence in our interactions. We still have the idea, the wrong idea, that harder is better, that deeper is better, that stronger is better. And not all the times, not with all the people.

And there’s some awful experience that people have terms of, couldn’t stop this. some people get hurt physically and some people get hurt emotionally. So other thing that we work on in the workshop. It’s a six hour workshop because it’s always step by step, little by little we go.

from very basic things to some other exercise every time with less clothes, every time with a little more ideas to complex and always after an exercise we always try to discuss the center issue. The exercise works as a…

as a provocation to speak, you know? It’s like, let’s use the exercise as an excuse to talk about some other ideas. it’s not just about getting naked with other guys, which I always tell people, this is not exactly an orgy. If you want to, I can manage drone. I’m very, very good at managing orgy.

Trevor Hoppe (54:03)
Yeah.

Nolberto (54:17)
a very good orgy organizer orgy planner, I will say. But well, what I always tell them is that it’s not like a… It’s more like a series of exercises and discussions that are from very basic things to more complex things about what is defined in us in our sexuality.

Trevor Hoppe (54:17)
No.

Nolberto (54:39)
being rude and violent with other men, being entitled to do things that the other people maybe don’t want to do. Because the most of the time when gaming talk about of their sexual encounters, they will use metaphors with violence. The most of them, wouldn’t know how to translate it in English, but was like

I really destroyed her whole, you know, was like… Destroying is really good thing in all this, the context. Is it really what the other person wanted? But if it… Because if it is, it’s great. But wasn’t what the other people was asking for. So, it’s kind of… It’s the first time I tried to talk about my workshop in English. It’s been quite a challenge. Thank you for that.

Trevor Hoppe (55:29)
I think you are onto something with this tendency to, I guess it’s just toxic masculinity that seeps into our heads and we end up using this kind of macho language around, I fucked him in half, you know, I just destroyed his whole, I,

Nolberto (55:42)
Mm-hmm.

Uh-huh.

Trevor Hoppe (55:47)
Part of that, I guess, is toxic masculinity. What are the good parts of masculinity that we should kind of promote and kind of foster and feel good about, and how do we separate that from the toxic stuff?

Nolberto (56:02)
a great question. You always ask the smallest questions. Because I’m going to be totally honest with you as I have been my whole life. The first idea that appears in my head is nothing but. Yeah, but I think about it for second and I said, okay,

Trevor Hoppe (56:20)
Right? Yeah, I feel that. I do.

Nolberto (56:27)
One of the first features that I think is like, there’s this like sufficiency, I think that’s the word, when you are…

able to speak your mind. You’re able to say what you want to do, what you want to have, what you want to say, basically. Yeah, that confidence that is like, all right, this is what I need. And even if other people’s tries to convince me that maybe you don’t want this, yes, I want this first. I think there also this crafty feature, like we don’t want to hire other people to fix something in our house.

Trevor Hoppe (56:42)
confidence.

Nolberto (57:03)
We have this confidence. Yes, exactly. I can do it myself. And I can prove myself that I’m good at it. Even if it’s my first attempt to do it, I will prove myself that I’m good enough to do this. It will bring me a satisfaction feeling.

Trevor Hoppe (57:03)
We’re supposed to be handyman.

Nolberto (57:21)
the other thing is like, socially we are encouraged to take some risks. And sometimes we see things as risks, but as opportunities.

Trevor Hoppe (57:27)
Hmm.

Mmm.

Nolberto (57:34)
And

I think that’s a very good thing in terms of, I remember a friend of mine in high school that said, if you don’t want it, we cannot do it again. If you didn’t like it at the end, we cannot do it again. So I think these are three features at last that as an adult I think of masculinity. And of course I’m not rejecting the idea of

that list becoming a bigger list during the following years. If you ask me the same question in one year or two years, maybe I will come with a bigger list.

Trevor Hoppe (58:17)
Definitely. I appreciate that because I think sometimes label of toxic masculinity, often we can see that and we can appreciate what’s bad about masculinity, but I think there are also good elements of it we also want to try to hold onto and not throw out with the bathwater. And as gay men, we obviously have a fraught and troubled

Nolberto (58:23)
you

Mm-hmm.

Trevor Hoppe (58:41)
troubled relationship with masculinity just because of the nature of our society, but reclaiming that, that good stuff I think can be helpful people.

Nolberto (58:43)
Yeah.

Trevor Hoppe (58:50)
always like to end with my favorite segment, Sorted Lives or Untold Tales or SLUT for short. What’s the sluttiest thing you ever did?

Nolberto (58:59)
the sluggiest thing I ever did. I was lucky enough to have a sex club like three blocks away from my house and I was starting prep and prep gave me a lot of permission to do a lot of things so I remember it’s one of my golden memories

Trevor Hoppe (59:09)
Nice.

Nolberto (59:23)
of my sexual life is one of the highlights. My first test to mouth. I like, yeah. My first, I haven’t experienced myself much as a bottom until the recent years and after PrEP. And I have gave myself a tons of options and things to do that I wasn’t able to do. I’m not just thinking that PrEP is…

is doing all the homework because in parallel I have made a lot of thinking and a lot of reflection inside myself and I’m always these people who wonders why and how. So I think that has helped a lot but yes there’s a lot of things that are like my sluttiest The first gangbang is a button.

That was quite memorable

My first orgy. I have tons. I have tons, And there’s some other things that they were like very, very slutty and they sound very good in history, but in real terms, they were very, very sometimes I fulfilled my fantasy of having sex in the beach.

Trevor Hoppe (1:00:23)
Hahaha.

Yeah,

Nolberto (1:00:43)
But it’s very, very uncomfortable. I was like, it sounds very sexy, like doing it and it’s like, no, there’s sand all over me, there’s sand inside of me. No, I need to stop it.

Trevor Hoppe (1:00:54)
Some places you do not want exfoliated with sand. It is just not the place.

Nolberto (1:00:58)
Yes, exactly. Yes.

But it’s good to have this experience because now I know that I don’t want to do it again. And no one is coming here to tell me, how does it feel? I have had the experience for myself and that’s my decision to make.

Trevor Hoppe (1:01:09)
Amen to that.

Amen. Well, that’s a really good place to end. appreciate it. Tell me if listeners or watchers, viewers want to learn more about you, where can they find you online?

Nolberto (1:01:14)
Yeah.

Bye.

Well, they can find me online in Instagram. My Instagram name is Noelle Rofian. I think we can write it down. So it’s my name in Instagram and an X, formerly known as Twitter. There’s lots of nudity and explicit material in X. So it’s NSFW, I think the other letters. Yeah. Instagram is little…

Trevor Hoppe (1:01:32)
Yes, I will tag you of course, yep.

And not safe for work, yes, exactly.

Nolberto (1:01:49)
more about education stuff and the things that I do daily and lots of underwear. That’s where you can find me.

Trevor Hoppe (1:01:56)
Perfect. Thank you so much, Alberto. I really appreciate your time and your wisdom.

Nolberto (1:02:01)
Thank you a lot, thank you for your trust in me, thank you for considering me as one of your guests. You’re a person that I admire a lot in every, and I’m very flattered to be here.

Trevor Hoppe (1:02:11)
Well, the feeling is mutual, for sure.

Trevor Hoppe (1:02:15)
That’s our show for today. As always, thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed today’s show, leave us a review on Apple, on Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your content. We would be most grateful for that kind of feedback. It keeps us going. And remember, if you aren’t having your best sex life, I can help. My services as a sex coach are designed to help you identify and overcome.

those obstacles that are standing between you and your best sex life. Find out more on my website, thebestcasex.net. Till next time.