Today we’d like to introduce you to Melisa Raney
Hi Melisa, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My co-host, Alli, and I met in 2018 in a support group for women coming out later in life. We were both married to men at the time, but separated and trying to navigate coming out later in life after long marriages with kids. (I have 2 kids and Alli has 3 kids)
Joining the support group was truly life changing for both of us because we finally knew we weren’t alone. Everyone in the group was facing unique challenges and fears of how our lives were changing so much. There was a lot to navigate with separation, divorce, child custody, selling our homes, moving, telling friends and family — and starting to actually date women.
About a year later when we were divorced and starting our new lives, we decided we should tell our stories to help others through their process and remove the stigma of coming out later in life. In June 2019, we recorded our first episode of the Lesbian Chronicles podcast. We recorded inside of Alli’s closet, using an iPad. While I have a background in media, we were definitely learning as we went along. We promoted on social media and before we knew it, we had hundreds of listeners. Our podcast has since grown to have listeners all over the world, including the US, Canada, Australia and the UK. We have also heard from listeners who live in areas where being gay is illegal and they appreciate the support from afar. We often have guests on to share their own stories of dating, relationships, co-parenting and mental health. Rosie O’Donnell even joined us for an episode a few months ago. We have published more than 250 episodes and recently launching our website (lesbianchroniclespodcast.com) to help listeners connect and offer resources in their own coming out journeys.
We truly love hearing everyone’s stories and how they’ve navigated the challenges of coming out later. It’s also allowed us to meet so many new people. Now when we travel, we try to connect with listeners in different cities. Melisa has met listeners as far away as Amsterdam.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
We’ve definitely had our challenges — essentially teaching ourselves how to do/record a podcast, finding the time to record week after week (we both still work and are raising children) — and then COVID was challenging because we had to record remotely. But we stuck with it because we know how much our listeners need us.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Melisa – I work in the media. (prefer not to specify my job) I’m also a standup comedian and screenplay writer (two hobbies I discovered a passion for after coming out).
Alli – Owner/Founder of Brick and Batten, a virtual exterior design company.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
How to pivot. We knew we wanted to continue to record — so we did so over zoom initially. As vaccines became available we went back to recording in-person, but we would record outdoors, sitting far apart from each other. We had to deal with some background noises (specifically leaf blowers) but we managed 🙂
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lesbianchroniclespodcast.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lesbianchronicles/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leschronicles1/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_UWEWf0I6SKkBiiwo8Yn9A
- Other: https://linktr.ee/lesbianchronicles
Image Credits
for the image titled: MelisaRaney282 — Credit: Danny Acres/Acres Studios
