Birthdate: January 23, 1978
Place of Birth: Portland, Maine
Height: 6' 0"
Weight: 210 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown
Okay, that's enough of that. Now for something a little more interesting (I hope).
The younger years of my life were spent living in Old Orchard Beach. I had a paper route and could be found every afternoon following school pedalling around town on my bike delivering papers. Tuesday evenings were spent at Boy Scouts in Biddeford. The rest of the time was devouted to my friends and video games. I did a bunch of stupid things when I was young (we all did), but you don't want to know about that.
After my fifth grade year my family moved to West Newfield where I did my growing up. I finished my schooling in the Massabesic school district and would live it all over again if I could. High school was a blast. I continued my involvement in the same scout troop, making the commute to Biddeford nearly every Tuesday night. I joined that with many school activites including, but not limited to, academic competitions, choir, theatre, community theatre, yearbook, and even wrestling. Life was great, and I had the friends to prove it.
After high school came college. not wanting to leave behind the many friends I had made along the way, I decided to remain in Maine to finish of my schooling. So, I enrolled at the University of Southern Maine, and I braced myself for the "real world" I was told I would be facing. Let me tell you this. High school in no way prepares you for college. I declared my major in Theatre with a concentration in Dramatic Literature and Theatre History (I wanted to become a high school English teacher). As such I ended up reading close to probably eight plays a week, and that was on top of normal work loads and a part time job. Yet, college was a great time. I once again became a charming socialite and made many friends. Living college life was great. It came to the point in time when I began spending more time lounging on the grass with my friends rather than studying or attending classes. It was during these college years that I came out.
Coming out can really change a person. I have never had an experience more liberating than the summer between my college years, the summer that all the boundaries came crashing down. I didn't change as a person, I just became more free with who I was. I was worried about losing friends, of course, but I found in the end that I actually made more as the freedom I was experiencing allowed me to become even more social than I was before. Of course with freedom comes responsibility, and responsibility came in the form of political activism. I submerged myself in the young gay community. I worked with a youth servicing agency called Outright as an advisor, sometimes as much as five times a week. I also worked on the Maine Wont Discriminate campaign for the "People's Veto" of February 10, 1998. When we lost that one, things changed. I was convinced I hadn't done enough. I began to work harder at making people realize what "being gay" was all about, and I did that by living my life as freely as I could. People soon began to realize that "being gay" was mostly the same as everyone else's lives. I wasn't really different because I was gay. I changed people's outlooks towards gays and as such made a difference.
After the end of my second year of college, I decided that I wasn't ready for college. I moved to Portland and began working full time. I also continued my work with Outright and then joined the Board of Directors for the Maine Lesbian Political Alliance, a political organization at the heart of the civil rights struggle in Maine. I joined the board with hopes of bringing the message of youth issues to the public eye. And that's basically where I stand now. I still attend Outright, but now as an attending youth and not an advisor, and I pour my need for activism into the board of the MLGPA. I LARP frequently, and as always, I go through life treasuring the time I get to spend with those I call friends.