“That was about being honest with me and taking a plunge without knowing exactly what I was leaping into. Finance satisfied me in my 20’s because it sounded good and looked good and I made good money, especially for a guy who ultimately hates math.

But I knew I loved being creative and was good at it and didn’t want to ever look back having never tried. As much as doing so gave me heart palpitations – giving up a solid reliable income, selling my house, reinventing myself – it was also very liberating and proof to me to always being true to yourself.”

“I love radio – more than I thought I would. I originally saw PROUD FM as an opportunity to expand on the writing I’ve done over the years, to spotlight queer issues and have the conversations I believe are worth having. There aren’t many queer people in the world who get the opportunity of a platform like this, so I feel lucky. The show is creative and a thousand laughs a day and I get to meet and chat with fascinating people. Plus, Mark Wigmore, who co-hosts with me and produces the show is a blast to work with, a true straight guy in all ways. He’s a good sport, has uber-thick skin and its fun to be in our fishbowl of a studio four hours every day.”

“As for the view, the PROUD FM studio at Church & Wellesley streets overlooks the KFC and the alley adjoining it, so think lots of crack deals, some BJs, and two summers ago I watched a stoned chick in a wheelchair lift herself ever so slightly up off her seat, pull her pants off and piss onto the KFC parking lot during rush hour – while having conniptions about it on-air. I thought I was going to wet my own pants.”

“I’ve always followed one rule with everything I do in my career which is to be authentic. When I pitched myself to PROUD FM I told them I could only promise to be myself on-air, and the same is true of the stuff I write. I just talk about what’s going on, whether it’s fun slice-of-gay-life stories, or something more serious like my private issues with crystal meth. Actually, it was being able to write an authoritative story about meth that got me in the door at the Globe to begin with; friends joke that meth was a career boost for me because that led to tons of professional publicity across various mainstream media in North America. As far as Globe Style, I just started pitching ideas – I love fashion and follow it out of interest anyway, and turn out they like my take on it. It’s the happy accidents that come from that one rule I mentioned I follow!”

“Until I interview Madonna and Oprah, my top interview so far is Joan Collins, although I’ve had the chance to talk to other people who most would consider above her stratosphere. But Joan, Madonna and Lady O are my gals, and when I was a teen I was addicted to and obsessed by TV’s Dynasty and Joan Collins as the original superbitch. I had her pics all over my locker, my dad bought me (pointlessly hopeful) the Playboy she appeared in (great article), and I used to write ‘Joan Collins was here’ on all my desks in various classes, to which the kids in those desks after me would write back, ‘Hi, Shaun!’. The year Joan Collins married Peter Holm, that Swedish pop star, a girl in my French class made me a Peter Holm voodoo doll for Christmas. Like, obsessive. So sitting down years later next to Joan Collins when she did that awful play here in Toronto was ludicrous and wonderful and I still have the photo of her and I and my big, shit-eating grin on my desk. As for dirt … she wears a wig.”

“I suspect a lot of what I satirize celebrity-wise isn’t true, hence the disclaimer when you visit my blog. I search the headlines and have a giggle from there, plus report on The Young and the Restless weekly, as this is work that needs to be done. Anything else I write about in Loose Lips, be it a local community bit or sharing behind-the-scenes details from my show is totally true to the best of my knowledge.”

“I’m lucky to have these platforms, and I know it. I think messaging we do about queer issues works because it’s never done without a sense of humour or without passion. Especially with straight audiences - it’s educational in a non-threatening way. And when the audience is queer but living in a part of the world where they’re oppressed, I think we demonstrate what can be achieved in terms of queer equality.

As far as backlash goes, I’ve had hate mail and phone calls, such as once when I published a story on Gay Guide Toronto (GGT) by a man who had chosen to get infected with HIV. I published that because I know his story and feelings are less uncommon than we’d think, and that they were worth putting out there, but the phone call at 4 a.m. from someone wishing I ‘got AIDS’ wasn’t fun. When I wrote about my experience using meth in a diary form for Xtra!, I was accused of glamourizing the drug by a few people after it came out. But I’d rather rile people up with what I talk about than put them to sleep.”

“When I was a little boy, my mother was tucking me into bed and asked me for the first time what I wanted to be when I grew up. I told her, ‘An actress.’ She corrected it to the masculine and probably died a little death, but it’s still a deep desire I’ve always had. And what I have done has been really satisfying. But I’m also very satisfied and motivated just to make a living as a creative person – despite what Stephen Harper thinks about art and ordinary Canadians. There are two TV developments on the way but I’m not able to talk about them yet.”

"I’ll go with the first song that popped into my head when you asked: ’Bizarre Love Triangle by New Order. It was the perfect song when I was a teen and ranks on my all-time list of favourites to this day. So to sit there spinning it during a show with my name on it is ridiculous."

“Anything sung by Celine Dion. Why don’t we just spoon sugar into our mouths, instead?”

You’ve said to “Follow your bliss.” What’s your bliss?

“Anything that makes me feel mighty real, as Sylvester would sing. The list is long from there.”

What should people never be afraid of?

“Taking a chance on making changes to live a deeply satisfying and joyful life. It’s the whole point.”