‘Have a Blessed Gay,’ a Spiritual-Comedy Podcast

Have a Blessed Gay is a weekly, spiritual-comedy podcast that aspires to dismantle preconceived notions of what is means to be religiously and/or spiritually engaged.

Created by Tyler Martin, it targets those who have been rejected from faith communities or have struggled to find acceptance or fulfillment on their own spiritual journeys. As the podcast’s holy host, he hopes to carve out a space of acceptance and belonging for his listeners. Have a Blessed Gay follows Martin’s previous project, DON’T SUCK, a comedic YouTube web series that explores faith, identity, and self-actualization.

Never one to skimp on the humor, Martin playfully engages with his guests while delving into serious topics at hand with honesty and compassion. The podcast uniquely includes interviews from celebrities, faith leaders, influencers, and activists from all forms of faith and religions.

With new episodes posted every Tuesday, Have a Blessed Gay has received critical praise. It has been featured on Stitcher’s “Top Indie Pod Picks,” Stitcher’s homepage for “LGBTQ Podcasts,” and Feedspot’s “Top 20 LGBTQ Podcasts of 2020.”

OUT FRONT had the opportunity to chat more with Martin about the podcast, growing up in a religious family, the best part about chatting with his guests, and what we can expect next from DON’T SUCK.Hi, Tyler! Thank you for taking some time to chat with me about your podcast, Have a Blessed Gay. Can you begin by telling us more about it?
Have a Blessed Gay is a weekly, spiritual-comedy podcast where I critically discuss religion and spirituality from an outcast perspective, but that includes a whole lot of things like current events, mental health, social norms, and basically anything that can relate to religion and/or spirituality. I also interview celebrity activists from around the world who are active in their communities, who are making positive changes in the world, and they are all from various walks of faith, traditions, and definitely encompassing of all religion and spirituality.

Why did you want to start this podcast?
I come from a very religious household. I have my own personal baggage when it comes to religion, as I think everyone does. Stemming from that as an adult, I started using my experiences with religion in my art. So, I created a web series called DON’T SUCK that is on YouTube. It did very well, and one of the themes within the show is the intersection of spirituality and the LGBTQ community. It is actually a smaller theme within the show, but that is a theme that once it was released, I started getting a message from someone, somewhere about it.

Then, I would get another message; then I started getting more messages, emails, and comments from people who related to the subject matter. I quickly realized that not only is this content not really out there, but what is out there, it approaches the subject matter in a serious and heavy way. My web series approached it from more of a comedic way. So, from people relating to it and asking me for more content specifically for that, I came up with the idea for the podcast and still use comedy as a gateway to discuss the difficult subject matters.

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Coming from a religious household, how did your family reach when you came out?
Not well [laughs]. I come from a family with a shit-ton of ministers. I have a couple brothers who are ministers, a grandfather that was a minister, and an uncle who was a minister. Oozing with ministers. So much so that when I was around 8, I went to my mom and started crying. Almost like a coming out, I told my mom that I don’t think I want to be a minister when I grow up. Is that OK? Like, that is the level of how much we were in ministry. I was freaked out that I would be a disappointment.

When I came out to my parents at 16, it was not good. I actually talk about my coming out experience in detail in Episode Five of Have a Blessed Gay, but it took several years. I stayed in the closet for them at the time. When I went off to college, I took a biblical literature class my freshman year, and it looked specifically at the Christian Bible as a piece of literature, not a holy book. That was super influential to me. Since I was a child, I was freaked out about religion and burning in Hell, so I did my own research. Matched with that class, I created a packet for my parents, and it had three sections.

The first section, I actually used the Bible because that was what they were scared of, their religion and me going to Hell. Before that point, I had tried to argue around the Bible, but I realized I had to argue through it. I used all biblically based arguments to basically be again homosexuality, against women, against people of color, against a lot of things that we do not talk about in the world, especially within Christianity. The second section, I did the same thing, but I did the reversal. I used the Bible to promote homosexuality and embrace people of color and women. Then, in the last section, it was my section that I used to tell them what I believed. I sent them that packet, and then later that fall, they switched to a gay-friendly church for me.

Aw, that is awesome!
Yeah! That was a changing point, and it was great.Several mainstream religions have been known to shun the LGBTQ community. Do you think it is getting better at all?
That is an interesting question. I think in some ways, yes, but we are also in an odd political climate right now where it is not only okay, but encouraged to be anti-LGBTQ. It’s an odd time because we do have churches in Christianity, within Islam, within the Jewish community, that are trying to be uplifting and inclusive. However, when the heads of those organizations are still extremely anti-LGBTQ, that can only go so far. I feel like until we reach a point where the head people have a change of heart, then there is only so much movement that can be done with those specific labels.

How has Have a Blessed Gay been received by audiences? I have seen nothing but great reviews.
It has been great! Since coming out, several people have reached out to me. The big theme within the show is basically making it to where spirituality is accessible for people who might not have thought that spirituality was available to them, and that has been an amazing thing to connect with people about. So many people have been told that spirituality lives within religion, and that is it. If you don’t have religion, then you do not have access to spirituality. That is so not true, and that is something I talk about a lot. Hearing people’s spiritual journeys have been so cool.

So many people have told me that they have decided to begin a spiritual journey to connect more with themselves and others, to do community work that they had not thought about doing before, to help the people in their lives who are struggling who they had not even thought might be having these conflicts. Like, duh! Of course! Let me help them, and let me reach out to them and see if they are OK. It has been this awesome chain effect of just planting the seed that spirituality is accessible, that there is a difference between religion and spirituality.

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You have had some fabulous guests on the show. What is it like chatting with these people and hearing their points of view?
It has been incredible. Something that is very important to me is to showcase diverse voices, and the episodes are completely different! Which is the whole point, but it is amazing to get these very different points of view. We have Senator Megan Hunt, who is the first openly LGBTQ senator in Nebraska. She is bisexual and an atheist. We have Rita Brent who is a lesbian and a proud Christian. We have Nina West who is a major activist and drag queen who takes a more humanist approach, which I really relate to. Daisy Khan who was named by Huffington Post as one of the top 10 female faith leaders. She is an activist within the Islam community.

I think the common thread is that idea of spirituality and the idea of people accessing it in so many different ways. Religion is just a package and a gateway that some people use, but you don’t have to. I think these people showcase that. It has been really, really awesome. Someone who I really loved getting to talk to was Daniel Karslake. He is someone who I have looked up to for a long time. It has been great to learn everyone’s different stories. I’m learning as my audience is learning, and I think that is a valuable thing.

What goes into making a podcast? Is it as tedious and challenging as it seems?
Yes! [Laughs]. The short answer is yes! Really, it depends on the podcast. There are so many formats of podcasting. Mine takes a lot of research. I had two people who were on book tours, so I am reading their books for it. That is very time-consuming for an interview, but a lot of the prep work is just research. If I am not as familiar with a religion, or denomination within a religion, then I am researching that. In addition to my interview episodes, I do solo episodes, but in my interview episodes, I do an intro and outro.

In both of those, I kind of branch off from the subject of the interview and give some history or some cultural relevance to what we are about to talk about. I do all that research, and my intros and outros are very scripted. I take a lot of time researching and writing those. Then the interviews themselves, I cut them down to around 30 minutes, but most of them are anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half long. There is a ton of editing that goes into every episode. Then, on top of editing, I have to find music that feels right for the mood, write the show notes, Instagram posts, and all the other little details. It’s a full-time job.What are some future goals for the podcast?
I am just excited to continue gathering community and giving a platform for people to question and explore spirituality.

In addition to being a podcaster, you are also a writer, actor, singer, and comedian. Has entertainment always been your passion?
Definitely. I started when I was 8 years old and have not stopped since. I have a degree in musical theatre; I am living in New York right now, and I have been fortunate enough to be a working actor in New York, which is awesome. Performance is definitely a major passion of mine.

Earlier, you mentioned your web series, DON’T SUCK. Can we expect any more from that project?
The plan is to continue the series in some capacity. The first season was a tremendously ambitious season for a low-budget series. Hefty scripts, countless filming locations, and a very sizable cast. It took a great deal of work to produce the first season, with literally no money. I will say that I have been working on a full-length series that is based on DON’T SUCK. The momentum with it was stopped due to COVID, but it is my goal to continue that work once things are back up and running again. Any producers out there looking for a project, hit me the hell up!

Before we wrap up, what are some upcoming projects we should be on the lookout for?
I am starting another podcast, but I cannot give too many details on it just yet. It is with a lovely friend of mine in L.A. She is super duper talented and a comedian, and we have been friends for several years now. We were working on it, and then COVID happened, so we decided to hold off. I think that worked out for the best. It will come out in the near future, and it will be even more comedic based than Have a Blessed Gay.

Visit haveablessedgay.com for more information, and follow the podcast on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Episodes are available on all digital streaming platforms, and you can follow Martin on Instagram to stay up-to-date with his latest news and projects.

Photos Courtesy of Enrique Cavazos