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Rich Burns Says the Quiet Part Out Loud That Gay Men Over 40 Have Been Thinking for Years
Episode 374 • 27th March 2026 • 40 Plus: Gay Men. Gay Talk. • Rick Clemons
00:00:00 00:38:36

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Gay men over 40 have been watching themselves disappear from screens, from conversations, and from their own community's narrative for decades. Rich Burns got fed up and built the antidote. The Humanitas Prize-winning creator and star of "The Disappointments" turned personal professional failure, romantic wreckage, and the specific ache of gay male invisibility into a series with over 4 million views and a global audience that stretches far beyond the LGBTQ+ community. Rich and Rick go deep on why older gay men are still being erased, what it actually costs to tell the truth on screen, and why humor is not a coping mechanism but a weapon. Key Takeaways:
  • Why gay men over 40 are still invisible in media and what one man did about it
  • How Rich used personal humiliation and career setbacks as creative rocket fuel
  • The financial reality most gay men live with that Hollywood keeps airbrushing out
  • What 4 million views taught Rich about the universal power of gay male experience
  • Why humor is not softening the blow but telling the whole truth

About Rich

Rich Burns is the writer, star and creator of the Humanitas Prize-winning digital series The Disappointments. He also created and serves as the head writer for the Netflix original series Mermaid Magic which debuted August 2024 at #1 on Netflix Kids, with a second season coming. He developed and wrote on the Netflix reboot of the animated series Winx Club - The Magic Is Back. He served as head writer on two other recent Netflix chart toppers: DreamWorks’ Spirit Riding Free and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Additionally, Rich was a staff writer at Walt Disney Feature Animation, scripting successful sequels to Brother Bear (Annie Award-nominated for Best Feature - Screenplay), The Fox and The Hound and The Little Mermaid, among others. His screenplay The Dunes of Overveen, based on a true story about a gay artist in Amsterdam who led a resistance raid against the Nazis during WWII, won an Outfest Award.

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Website Instgram - The Disappointments Instagram - Rich

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