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Radio Host Taylor Strecker Opens Up About Coming Out, 'Label-Less' Love

Taylor Strecker, host of SiriusXM’s “Wake Up With Taylor," talks to NBC OUT about finding love with another woman, her "difficult" coming out and why she shuns labels.
SiriusXM Radio Host Taylor Strecker
SiriusXM Radio Host Taylor StreckerJason Shaltz / SiriusXM

On June 6, radio host Taylor Strecker came out publicly on her program, “Wake Up With Taylor,” about her first­-ever female relationship after a five-year marriage to a man -- who she affectionately calls her “was­band.”Strecker grew up outside of Boston in a idyllic Catholic household in small town Cohasset, Massachusetts. She described it as “a Norman Rockwell painting on the water.”

She idolizes her parents who she said are both smart and beautiful. Her father, “the doctor in town,” went to Harvard University, and her mother went to Boston College. They were also virgins until marriage, so Mr. and Mrs. Strecker had explicit expectations that Taylor would be as well.

Up until high school, Strecker described herself as the “good kid in town,” always doing the right thing. But after enrolling in Ithaca College, she said she became experimental and “kind of a hippie,” going to parties and dating “bad boys.”

That phase didn’t please her prudish parents, but Strecker said she was never a promiscuous girl.

“I never liked sex with guys -- ever!," she told NBC OUT. "I was always terrified of getting pregnant." She also thought she might not like sex because she wasn’t married.

She later married a man who “wasn’t pushy with sex,” which made her feel safe.

“Looking back, I think there was a lack of passion," she added. "My marriage was sadly over before it even started." After five years of marriage, the couple parted ways.

Radio Host Taylor Strecker and girlfriend Taylor Donahue
Radio Host Taylor Strecker and girlfriend Taylor DonahueTaylor Strecker

Strecker had always considered herself straight, but during the divorce, she developed a friendship, later followed by an intense crush, with a woman -- also named Taylor.Strecker swears she never got jealous seeing this "friend" kiss other girls until she got admittedly jealous after seeing her kiss one specific girl. Their love story was outlined in a recent Women’s Health piece called “How We Went From Best Friends to Girlfriends.”

It’s been “about a year” since Taylor Strecker and Taylor Donohue consciously coupled. And while the coming out process was “difficult,” Taylor said the families have joined forces.

“I get it now,” Strecker said of their sexual chemistry. “I always used to think straight men and gay men were totally into it [while] women were totally lying about sex,” she told NBC OUT.

Since coming out about her relationship publicly, Strecker’s loyal SiriusXM listeners have commented that she avoids using the term “lesbian” to describe herself.

“They are 100 percent right,” she said, adding she probably took the lead from Donohue, who has identified as "gay" rather than "lesbian" since coming out several years ago.

Strecker emphasized she does not want to be labeled.

“I’m in a place where I’m in love with a person and one person only," she added. "I call it label-less love.”

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