Your LGBTQ+ Story: Write & Speak Your Truth
Mason Funk
OUTWORDS founder | Author | Emmy Nominated Documentary Producer
Cole LeFavour
Activist & Author | Former Idaho State Senator | Veteran Writing Teacher
Stop telling the version of your story that was built for other people’s comfort – and find the words that capture the entirety of who you are.
If you're LGBTQ+ and in midlife, whether you're fully out, partially out, or not out at all, you've probably been subtly editing your story your entire life – without fully realizing it.
Hoping to feel safe or conform to other people’s ideas of you, you learned what to skip at family dinners… what to soften in job interviews… what to leave out… and what to translate into narratives other people could handle.
Eventually, your stories became muscle memory, slipping out automatically at weddings, work dinners, and your high school reunion – not because they made you feel whole, but because it's what got repeated by family, by society, and most importantly by you.
In the process, your story, in all its beauty and complexity, stopped belonging to you.
So you’ve made decisions based on the edited version of your story – and unconsciously held back from people who deserve to know the real you.
It's not that you don't have a story worth telling. It's that you've never had the right conditions to tell it.
You're ready to take ownership of your story – not by stripping away every filter or telling everyone everything, but by finally having access to the full version of it.
And then choosing, with intention, when, where, and with whom you share it.
This is where the story you've been carrying finally gets told.
You're yearning for a story that makes you feel strong – one that doesn't shrink in the retelling, one that opens doors in new relationships and conversations instead of closing them. Without translation, without apology.
You want the craft to tell it clearly – metaphors that capture what your pivotal experiences felt like, details that give weight to the moment you made a life-changing decision or chose yourself, and a visceral sense of the courage it took.
You want to look back at the roads you've traveled and see the shape of what you built, the obstacles you cleared, the transformations that happened, and the power you claimed when you stopped asking permission.
Not someone else's framework for understanding your life – but one that's entirely yours. To be honored, to be celebrated, and to be shared on your terms, in the rooms you choose.
Shape your story in a queer-centered space, guided by people who understand why it matters.
Mason Funk is an Emmy Award nominated producer and founder of OUTWORDS, one of the most ambitious oral history projects documenting LGBTQ+ lives across America.
Cole LeFavour is an activist, former Idaho state senator, and longtime teacher of memoir and storytelling who’s spent years helping people find the language for experiences that resist easy telling.
Together, they know what it takes to move a story from safe but incomplete to something you actually want to claim.
Over four days, you'll work with metaphor, memory, and narrative structure, exploring how small shifts in language can change the way you understand your past and how you carry yourself in the present.
You'll map your journey with its real obstacles and turning points, practice telling your story out loud as an act of ownership rather than performance, and record a short oral history on video that captures who you are now and where you're headed.
All of it happens in an intimate, queer-centered space where complexity is welcomed and your narrative is honored.
By the end of the week, you'll have more than words on a page or a recording on your phone. You'll have a version of your story that finally fits – and the craft to keep shaping it.
Inside the workshop
Bring your inside story all the way out.
Join us for four days on the Pacific coast in Baja, Mexico to stop performing your story and start owning it.
You will:
Own your full story
At family dinners, in new relationships, and in conversations where you used to hold back – unlock the ability to experience what real connection feels like when you're not translating.
Tell your coming-out story
Talk about your relationships, and describe your path without flinching or sanitizing. Because you finally have language that holds the truth.
Look at the full arc of your life
Recognize and celebrate something that took real courage to build – not something to explain, justify, or package for someone else's comfort.
Work with Mason and Cole to write your story
Using sensory detail, metaphor, and narrative structure that transforms raw life experience into language you'll want to keep – and keep telling.
Speak your story out loud in a room full of people who are eager to understand
Carry that feeling home as a new standard for where you spend your time and energy going forward.
Leave with a recorded oral history (if you'd like)
You will be invited to work in pairs to interview each other on camera, guided by Mason's expertise in drawing out your authentic voice. Note: this is a fully optional activity. If you participate, you will walk away with a video recording of who you are now and where you're headed.
All of it unfolds at MEA's beautiful oceanfront retreat center in Baja with wide-open skies, Pacific waves, and an intimate group of midlife LGBTQ+ adults who don't need you to explain the terrain you crossed to get here.
This Workshop
Is For You If…
Our history contains immense practical wisdom that can be used by other individuals and groups seeking to secure their rights, improve their visibility, and participate more fully in our society.
¬ Mason Funk ¬
Meet
Mason Funk
OUTWORDS Founder | Author of The Book of Pride | Emmy‑nominated documentary producer
Mason Funk grew up in Santa Monica, California, knowing he was gay and not yet sure how to reconcile that truth with his Christian faith, his love of sports, and his hunger for books and music. He studied English at Stanford and Oxford, where he fell hard for language and storytelling – passions that would anchor a life spent writing, interviewing, and documenting LGBTQ+ lives.
His path wound through classrooms, orchards, and sheep farms, then unexpectedly to Lisbon after a chance encounter on a train, where he spent seven years acting, modeling, translating, and launching his film and TV career. Later, in Los Angeles, he built a decades‑long career in non‑fiction TV and film before founding OUTWORDS, an oral‑history project preserving the stories of LGBTQ+ elders whose courage helped change the world.
Today, Mason lives in Palm Springs with his husband, continues to share OUTWORDS stories, and creates spaces where queer and questioning people can say out loud what they’ve lived through and hear themselves differently.
"I love getting those who see themselves as non-writers to fall in love with writing a story as a journey. They pull a metaphor out of nowhere and suddenly they're like, 'Wow, that's really cool. That feels like me.'"
¬ Cole LeFavour ¬
Meet
Cole LeFavour
Activist & Author | Former Idaho State Senator | Veteran Writing Teacher
Cole LeFavour writes about conscience and the wild from deep in Idaho, braiding activism, land, and queer life in red America.
A longtime organizer and the first openly LGBTQ+ lawmaker in Idaho, Cole has spent decades fighting for equality while staying honest about what it costs – and what it makes possible. Their forthcoming memoir, In the Arms of Mountains: A Memoir of Land, Love & Queer Resistance in Red America, brings those threads together in story form.
For four decades, Cole has taught writing to people of all ages and experience levels, helping them find forms and language that fit the lives they’ve actually lived. Their work has appeared in literary journals and documentary films, and their TEDx talk, “Fear, Anger and the Manipulation of the Human Mind,” has reached over 100,000 viewers.
Testimonials for Cole and Mason:
Supported By the MEA Team
Daniel Booz
MEA's Head of Advisors & Certified Enneagram Practitioner
Daniel is a former Tech-Sector sales leader with expertise in high-growth startups. After years thriving in the corporate world with particular acumen for change management, human capital development, and sales process workflow, Daniel (in true MEA fashion) made a major shift to become a trainer and consulta ...
View BioTeddi Dean
MEA's Head of Mindfulness & Movement | Former Bone Brigade team member
Teddi Dean is the Head of Mindfulness and Movement here at MEA. He offers a fun, accessible and wisdom filled approach to both meditation and yoga. Teddi loves working with beginners and has a gift in showing that each and every one of us is capable of dropping into stillness. Teddi Dean grew up in Southern C ...
View BioOur Agenda at a Glance
Thursday:
4:00 PM: Check-in/Welcome
5:30 PM: Welcome Reception & Dinner
7:00 PM: Orientation Session
Friday:
7:00 AM: Mind + Body
8:30 AM: Breakfast
10:00 AM: Classroom Time
1:15 PM: Lunch
2:00 PM: Free Time
3:00 PM: Classroom Time
5:30 PM: Free Time
6:30 PM: Dinner
8:00 PM: Evening Gathering
Saturday:
7:00 AM: Mind + Body
8:30 AM: Breakfast
10:00 AM: Classroom Time
1:15 PM: Lunch
2:00 PM: Free Time
3:00 PM: Classroom Time
5:30 PM: Free Time
6:30 PM: Dinner
8:00 PM: Evening Gathering
Sunday:
7:00 AM: Mind + Body
8:30 AM: Breakfast
10:00 AM: Classroom Time
1:15 PM: Lunch
2:00 PM: Free Time
3:00 PM: Classroom Time
5:30 PM: Graduation
6:00 PM: Celebration Dinner
Monday:
7:00 AM: Breakfast
10:00 AM: Checkout/Departure
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
*Please note all times are estimates and not all “classroom activities” take place in the actual classroom. This agenda is meant to give you an idea of the general flow of activities.
Discover
yourself on Baja's wild coast
Estrella del Mar | Baja, Mexico
Our oceanfront campus provides the perfect backdrop for deep reflection and creative exploration. Wake to the sound of waves, practice meditation on the beach, and gather for meals that nourish both body and conversation.
PLUS: Gourmet from-scratch meals, snacks, and drinks featuring locally sourced ingredients from our organic garden, made by our in-house chefs.
Is It Safe to Travel to Baja?
If recent news about Mexico has you second-guessing a trip, we get it. Here's what you should know.
Our campus is in Baja California Sur, a quiet stretch of the Pacific coast between Todos Santos and Cabo. Think surf breaks, organic farms, and dirt roads that lead to empty beaches. It's about as far from the headlines as you can get.
The U.S. State Department gives Baja California Sur a Level 2 advisory, the same rating as France, Italy, and the United Kingdom. There are no travel restrictions for U.S. citizens or government personnel anywhere in the state, and Baja California Sur is consistently ranked one of Mexico's two safest states. Flights and ground travel throughout the region are running normally with no disruptions.
Our upcoming workshops are booking as expected, and we continue to welcome guests to campus every month. Nothing has changed on the ground here.
Still have questions? We're happy to talk it through. Contact us here.
Your Workshop Also Includes:
Turn your LGBTQ+ journey into healing, strength, and resolve.
Your life already has the material. What it needs is the language.
Spend four days in a queer-centered room on the Baja coast with two guides who've spent their careers helping people find the words for experiences that resist easy telling.
You'll leave with language that holds the truth in conversations that used to make you shrink, a recorded oral history on video that captures who you actually are, and the confidence in knowing your life took real courage to build – and that the story you tell about it finally matches.
You already know the version you've been carrying doesn't fit – this is where you build the one that carries you into what comes next.
Book your spot today
Your LGBTQ+ Story: Write & Speak Your Truth
Frequently Asked Questions
I’m not a “writer”, will I be out of my depth?
Not at all. This workshop is designed for people who have stories, not people with polished writing experience. You’ll get simple prompts, structures, and examples, plus lots of encouragement rather than critique. The goal is to help you find language that feels like you, whether that shows up as a paragraph, a metaphor, or a story you speak out loud.
I'm a writer, is this going to feel too basic?
No. This isn’t a craft workshop – it’s about excavating and reframing the stories you tell yourself about your own life, which is different work than writing for others. Your skills will help you articulate what you find, but writing about your own experience requires turning off the editorial brain that makes you good at your job. This workshop gives you space to do that, with structure and guidance from two people who understand both the art of storytelling and the courage it takes to look honestly at your own narrative.
I’m a bit private/shy, do I have to share everything with the group?
You’re always in charge of what you share. Some exercises happen in pairs, some on the page, and some in the larger circle, and you’ll never be forced to read or reveal something that doesn’t feel right. Many people find that, over a few days, their sense of safety grows and they choose to share more, but the pace and depth are up to you.
What if my story feels “too much” or “not queer enough” for this space?
There’s no one right version of a queer story. Whether you’ve been out for decades, recently came out, are questioning, or move in mostly queer circles, your distinct mix of joy, loss, confusion, pride, and survival belongs here. Mason, Cole, and the MEA team are skilled at holding a wide range of experiences without comparison or hierarchy.
What exactly will I leave with after the four days?
You’ll leave with a short recorded oral history of yourself on video, along with written fragments, metaphors, and short pieces you can keep developing. More importantly, you’ll likely leave with clearer language for talking about your life, a felt sense of being deeply witnessed, and a stronger inner sense of which stories you’re ready to keep, and which ones you’re finally done carrying.
What’s included in the tuition?
Your tuition includes all programming, four nights of world-class accommodations, chef-prepared meals, snacks, drinks, and access to MEA’s oceanfront campus in Baja. The only additional costs are transportation to the campus and any personal incidentals.
Still deciding or have questions?
Connect with our helpful team of Advisors
Our Advisors are all MEA alumni who can offer genuine insights into our programs. They’re passionate about helping you finding the right fit to make your next chapter the best one.
Daniel Booz
Lucas Erie
Leslie Bartlett
