This week, Ana (@anamariecox) sat down with Travon Free (@Travon), the star of the new HBO show Him or Her. They started things off by delving into the show’s premise: it’s largely based on Travon’s dating experiences as a black, bisexual male in America.

That transitioned to a conversation about the importance of representation, something personal to Travon specifically because he hasn’t ever seen himself represented in popular movies or tv shows: “I want to be as visible as possible so that people can start to free themselves.”

Ana then shifted the conversation, asking Travon about his journey to realizing and accepting his sexuality. Growing up in a conservative Christian church made things more difficult as he grappled with his identity, and eventually led him to stop attending before adopting a new approach: “If this is what gets me to hell, f*** it.”

Toward the close of the show, Travon continued on, and explained the ways he’s found acceptance of his sexuality later in life: “I had people around who just were what they were. When if felt like i got to a safe place where i could at least start to explore what it was and figure out what it was, and then be around people like my best friend Sasha, who’s lesbian, other friends of mine who are queer, it made it easy for me to go, yeah, this is me.”

Get in touch with us on Twitter at @crooked_friends or email the show at withfriendslikepod@gmail.com.

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