Poulin-Burrage, Edward "Teddy"

Interviewer

Brendan McBrine

Files

Description

Edward “Teddy” Poulin-Burrage is a biracial queer man who has lived in the Portland area for just about his entire life. Teddy has been deeply involved in the world of activism for more than half his life at this point, including with the Southern Maine Workers Center, Sexual Assault Response Services, Portland Racial Justice Congress, Pride Portland, Equality Maine, and other groups. Teddy has mostly done behind the scenes work for these organizations, usually focusing on coalition-building and forging relationships with other organizers. On top of this, Teddy has been a regular in the local gay bar scene for quite some time, and discusses how the world of activism and the gay bar scene often intersect in significant ways. Teddy currently describes himself as “passing the baton” to the next generation of activists, but he also makes it clear that this is not necessarily retirement. With this, he discusses what he thinks the next generation of activists ought to keep in mind and tells some touching stories of triumph in uncertain times, which are certainly important at the present moment of such intense backlash surrounding the victories he was a part of.

Please cite as: Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer+ Collection, Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine, University of Southern Maine Libraries. For more information about the Querying the Past: Maine LGBTQ Oral History Project, please contact Dr. Wendy Chapkis.

Publication Date

11-14-2023

Publisher

USM Special Collections

City

Portland, Maine

Keywords

Activism, politics, organizing, gay, queer, biracial, race, BIPOC, Portland (ME), Old Port, Sebago Lakes, Portland Racial Justice Congress, Southern Maine Workers Center, Black Lives Matter, Black Power, Michael Brown, George Floyd, Portland Pride, Southern Maine Pride, Emerge Maine, Mike Michaud, Paul Lepage, gay bar, Blackstones, Styxx, chosen family, Harbor Masters, ACLU, NAACP, Shenna Bellows, campaign for anti-discrimination, No on 1, Yes on 1, Sexual Assault Response Service, Portland is Burning, transphobia, drag show, racism, Neo-Nazis, Monument Square, racial passing, Friendsgiving, community, All Now Review, amateur stripping, leather daddies, Danielle Dior, Milk With Dignity, Work With Dignity, Maine Beacon, Black Girl in Maine, New Leaders Project

Disciplines

History of Gender | Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies | Oral History | Women's Studies

Recommended Citation

McBrine, Brendan, "Poulin-Burrage, Edward "Teddy"" (2023). Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection. 113.
https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/querying_ohproject/113

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.