In Season 3, Episode 7 of the Element Q Podcast, TJ Woodward welcomes longtime friend, spiritual teacher, and ordained minister Mark Anthony Lord to explore healing, identity, recovery, spirituality, and the evolving journey of the LGBTQ+ community.

Together, they reflect on Pride, the generations that came before us, and how healing our personal pain can become a gift to the collective. Mark shares his perspective that LGBTQ+ lives carry a profound spiritual invitation—not despite challenge, but through it—and opens up about reclaiming the word “queer” as an expression of authenticity, integration, and freedom.

The conversation moves into powerful territory as TJ and Mark discuss coming of age during the AIDS crisis, internalized shame, spiritual recovery, religious trauma, and the difference between religion and lived spirituality ...