Publication: FOX 11 Los Angeles (FOX LA) Date: June 24, 2026 Format: Studio Interview
Segment Overview
In this Pride Month studio interview, FOX 11 Los Angeles sat down with Paulo Anthony Grayson, founder of No Matter What Recovery, to talk about a journey that took him from being bullied as a gay teenager, to homelessness and substance use disorder, to building an LGBTQ+ affirming addiction treatment center in Silver Lake. Grayson, who will celebrate 11 years sober in October, shared why affirming, community-centered care matters so much for the people he now serves.
The NMWR Connection
No Matter What Recovery was built specifically to be the kind of place Grayson needed and could not find when he first got sober. As he told FOX 11, early in his recovery he sat in rooms “with a bunch of guys that looked like they used to bully me in high school,” and did not feel safe enough to be open and honest about what he was carrying. That experience shaped the treatment programs the center offers in Los Angeles today.
“When we started No Matter What Recovery, we wanted a safe place for LGBTQ+ folks to come where they didn’t have to teach their therapist about their lifestyle,” Grayson said. “Operationally, logistically, and clinically, we are able to treat members of the LGBT community in a way that’s more effective and more affirming, because we understand them.”
Key Points
Grayson connected his own story to a larger crisis, noting that LGBTQ+ youth are dramatically overrepresented among people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles. He described substance use as a common but maladaptive coping strategy for internalized homophobia and transphobia, religious trauma, and generational trauma, often reached for when affirming support for co-occurring mental health and substance use is out of reach.
He was candid about his own rock bottom, recalling a hospitalization for a staph infection when a doctor told him, “tonight’s the night, you can live or you can die.” He credited Los Angeles and its recovery community with helping him find his footing, and described the work of helping others as central to staying sober himself: “I get the privilege to help others the way that I was helped.”
No Matter What Recovery offers care designed around the realities of the community it serves, with clinical specialties that include sexualized drug use and a dedicated focus on transgender addiction treatment, delivered in an environment built from the ground up to be affirming.
Watch the Interview
Watch Paulo Anthony Grayson’s full conversation with FOX 11 Los Angeles.
