Everything is Connected: An Evening of Stories, Most Weird, Many True

This is one of the festival's Pay What You Can events.

Peterson Toscano spent 17 years and over $30,000 on three continents attempting to “de-gay” himself through gay conversion therapy. After coming out, he shared his experience in the one-person comedy Doin’ Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House. Along with fellow conversion therapy survivors, he launched an international campaign to reveal the dangers of conversion therapy and ex-gay ministries.

In Everything Is Connected, Peterson shares three completely different stories that appear to have nothing to do with each other, and with a simple theatrical move, he connects them all together.

See Peterson morph into multiple comic characters as he travels to the past and the future. It is weird, wonderful, and surprisingly inspirational.

Peterson Toscano is a performer, activist, and recognized scholar who highlights gender non-conforming people in the Bible. He presented Transfigurations–Transgressing Gender in the Bible at academic conferences, seminaries, universities, places of worship, and drag bars. It is now available as a film on DVD from Meetinghouse.xyz and streaming on YouTube.

For 20 years, Peterson has connected with North American, European, and African audiences

through his one-person comedies, shape-shifting storytelling, and lively lectures. His plays and talks humorously explored the serious topics of LGBTQ issues, sexism, racism, privilege, gender, and justice.

Toscano, a Quaker, gardener, and lover of all foods, lives in Sunbury, PA, with his husband, the writer Glen Retief.

Peterson hosts and produces podcasts, including.

• Quakers Today, the companion podcast to Friends Journal magazine.
• The Seed: Conversations for Radical Hope
• Bubble&Squeak, his own personal audio playground
• The Half-God of Rainfall, presented by The Wilma Theatre (premieres February 2025)
• Citizens Climate Radio--A Climate Change Podcast
• Climate Changed Podcast: Spiritual Leadership for a Climate-Changed World

Peterson Toscano is Imagine’s 2026 Artivist in Residence!

His other events in this year's programme include:

• Bubble & Squeak: Live podcast recording - Tuesday 24 March
• The Weight of Carbon Dioxide and Chihuahuas - Saturday 28 March
• After Meeting Conversation at South Belfast Quaker Meeting House - Sunday 29 March

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