Exes and O's podcaster Shannon Beveridge takes normalizing queer joy and sex on the road

Influencer and podcaster Shannon Beveridge has modeled queer, sapphic visibility for fans from the comfort of her home beginning in the early 2010s to stages from Toronto to Los Angeles with her Hard Launch tour. A longtime YouTube personality who’s discussed coming out, public breakups, and queer sex, Beveridge had a mission when she took to the road this month — to bring queer joy to people when and where it’s most needed.

“In general, queer people, we are so hungry for queer joy, and we're so hungry for real queer representation,” Beveridge tells The Advocate. “We have so many more shows and movies now than we did even 10 years ago. But because it's so few and far between, still, actual authentic representation and authentic queer joy, I think we're all still so excited for.”

Search Beveridge’s name on YouTube, and early videos that pop up include the Texas native addressing questions like “Would you change the fact that you’re gay if you could?” and vulnerably sharing reasons for breakups with fans along with hilarious videos like working through the logistics of partners yoga. Last year, Beveridge shifted focus and launched the queer sex and dating podcast Exes and O's. Soon Beveridge welcomed celebrity guests like Tegan and Sara Quin, Margaret Cho, and Hayley Kiyoko in conversations with the intimacy that feels for the listener like dropping in on old friends catching up.

“With YouTube, I'd been making content for so long, and so much of my content had been so personal and driven by my own story. During COVID, especially 2020, I just was experiencing the most burnout I've ever felt,” Beveridge says. “In some ways, I kind of felt like I said everything I wanted to say as far as sitting alone in front of a camera goes. So the podcast in general, I was trying to think of some way to pivot my content and give the floor to someone else.”

Shannon Beveridge of Exes and O's on tourCourtesy

Though the internet is the great equalizer that can connect communities across continents, the opportunity to connect with queer fans where they live was a draw for Beveridge. Having grown up in Texas and attended college in Oklahoma (places where queer lives are currently under attack), Beveridge knows the value of meeting folks on their home turf where queer spaces are dwindling.

“I've had the chance to have so many conversations with queer people from all over America and outside of America where I get to hear their experiences,” Beveridge says. “There is something about that. [It] just really makes you feel indebted to the community, and making content for them that makes them feel more seen and less lonely.”

“I’ve been in those rooms where you feel very, very different,” she adds of her lived experience. “I know how important it is to just open your computer and see someone who looks like you or talks like you or whatever. It's not just entertainment at that point. It's lifesaving content for people I know. It saved my life.”

Shannon Beveridge of Exes and O's on tourCourtesy

Long before she launched Exes and Os, Beveridge dove into frank discussions about sex and dating to destigmatize queer and sapphic sex.

“The sex aspect of my podcast, I feel like, especially for lesbians, everything with sex feels so sexualized instead of just normalized,” Beveridge says. “I wanted to create a space to have conversations about where are we buying strap-ons and what kind of strap-ons are we buying? It's not meant to be kinky. It's educational, but it's also silly, if that makes sense."

Shannon Beveridge of Exes and O's on tourCourtesy

Beveridge’s tour closes with a stop in Los Angeles after welcoming special guests throughout more than a dozen. In a way, her public-facing queer identity pushes back against current political moves to erase LGBTQ+ people and joy.

“It is wild because gay people, we are just living day in and day out. And even if you’re tuned into the news, we are still waking up with our partners having coffee, and we are taking our kids to school, and we're meeting up with our friends at a bar to play pool at the end of the night,” Beveridge says. “You can't stop queer joy because we're living our lives all the time. I'm happy to create a space where not think about the news for one to two hours in these cities, and hopefully, people will meet other people from their cities and go play pool after the show or meet up for dinner before the show.”

Flexing her queer cred, Beveridge namechecks a lesbian touchstone.

“You really just cannot stop queer joy because queer people, we are living and we're doing fun things with other gay people all the time. So whether people want us to or not, we will keep laughing and living and loving. What'sThe L Word theme song?”