Welcome back to the Sanctuary. What happens when you are raised at the intersection of two rigid religious doctrines that both demand your absolute silence? What happens when you climb to the top 2% of your professional field, only to realize the standard of success you’re maintaining is a gilded cage for your nervous system?

In this deeply vulnerable, necessary, and beautifully aligned episode of the Black and Diagnosed Podcast, host Gerron Scott pulls back the layers of systemic survival with Dr. Sydney Nelloms, an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Queer Criminology. Growing up a queer Black woman in the South under the dual weights of Southern Baptist and Islamic traditions, Sydney unmasks the intense psychological toll of being forced to perform an identity that never belonged to her.

Together, Gerron and Sydney strip away the ...