Philip is a clinician at the Rainbow Center of Contra Costa County. He is also a proud biracial gay man who grew up in Contra Costa and attended the Rainbow Center's youth group as a teenager. He attended UC Santa Cruz for his undergraduate degree before getting his master's degree in counseling at John F. Kennedy University. Philip loves the chance to support the mental health of LGBTQ+ teens, adults, and families in the Bay Area, especially around working through trauma that many in the community experience. When he's not working, you can find him singing, cooking, dancing, or spending time with his dog, Iris. Visit the Rainbow Center website

Michael grew up in Greer, SC. He had the luck to learn to how to cook and garden from his grandparents. As the youngest of 6 children and a house of 10 (parents, grandparents and children), it could be hectic at times. Helen Mae (grandmother) started showing Michael how to cook. Francis Marion (grandfather) showed him how to garden. Every spring, Michael would help his grandfather with the garden. From tomatoes to potatoes to okra to corn, they planted it. Many times, he would help harvest from the garden and bring the fresh vegetables to the kitchen for that nights dinner. His grandparents grew up in the Shreveport, LA area. Growing up in this area gave them the opportunity to learn the local flare for cooking and smoking meats. During the holidays, the family would enjoy a smoked turkey, smoked ham, smoked pheasant and smoked quail wrapped in bacon (quail have no fat and would be bone dry if not for the bacon). Michael counts his blessing that he had the opportunity to learn from two of the greatest people he has ever known. Now, he takes this love of cooking and regularly cooks for his friends.



Mike's Website

Robert served as a reporter and producer at various radio and television stations in Colorado and Arizona. He was a broadcaster at the Italian National Broadcasting Company (RAI Radio televisione Italiana) in Naples, Italy. He was a reporter for Armed Forces Radio and Television along the coast of Vietnam, the Asian Western Pacific and Vicenza, Italy. He was a volunteer and activist in the early gay liberation movement with the Gay Coalition of Denver and with two weekly gay radio shows in Colorado. Later, as a federal government public affairs officer, he served as a government spokesperson and managed media relations with reporters who worked for media outlets from across the USA and around the world. Robert’s book, Banned From California - Jim Foshee, is the true story of a 15-year-old gay runaway who finds himself in the 1950s Los Angeles underground world of homosexuals and early queer culture. Experience Jim Foshee's adventures on the West Coast after hitchhiking from his home 800 miles away in a small Idaho town. Jim lives on the edge. Through his adventures and misadventures, he finds himself among kind-hearted strangers, kindred souls and drag queens as well as con artists, liars and ruthless cops. At a younger age, Jim is institutionalized, placed in an orphanage by his mother, sentenced to a reform school because he runs away so much, and committed to a mental hospital for diagnosed "sexual deviation and sociopathic personality. Jim just wants to break away and live a simple gay life, but his future first includes run-ins with authorities, incarceration, and toiling on a prison chain gang. Be ready for a unique and personal journey you won't soon forget. Jim's vivid remembrances paint a first-hand intimate portrait of times now gone--times of McCarthyism, government hunts for homosexuals and routine firings; but also times of the beats, the hippies and liberation protests. For more information visit Robert’s website BannedCA.com