TDWS: Not Straight Forward with Lawrence Winnerman: Guest Füsun Aydın

Not Straight Forward with Lawrence Winnerman is my weekly queer takeover of the conversation. I’m a GenX gay man who has lived through the AIDS crisis, cultural whiplash, political backlash, long relationships, bad dates, addiction in my orbit, reinvention, and more trial-and-error than I’d ever recommend. On this episode, I’m joined by Madam Füsun Aydın — writer, trans woman, sex worker, brothel madam, and one of the most fearless voices I know. Together we talk plainly about queer life — sex, love, survival, danger, autonomy, aging, and the kind of knowledge you only get the hard way. No performative outrage. No rainbow branding theater. Just real conversation between people who’ve lived it.

If you’re looking for sanitized “it gets better” slogans, this isn’t that. If you want lived experience, generational memory, and the kind of insight that comes from surviving your own mistakes — you’re in the right place. Füsun brings unfiltered perspective from the realities of sex work and trans life; I bring GenX memory and hard-won lessons from decades inside queer culture. Nothing about our lives has been straightforward. That’s exactly the point.

Thank you Nick Paro, Jason Odell, Dana DuBois, Polly Walker Blakemore, Dr. Mary M. Marshall, and many others for tuning into my live video with Füsun Aydın and The Daily Whatever Show! Join me for my next live video in the app.