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Description
Charles Nero was born in Decatur, Alabama and was raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. He discusses discovering at a young age that he was not heterosexual but not acting on that until college. Nero also talks about the challenges he faced when he came out to his parents. During his time at college, he made decisions that led him away from organized Christianity. He discusses the HIV/AIDS epidemic and his work with the Ithaca NY AIDS Taskforce. He also discusses some of the challenges presented by racism and homophobia. He and his husband have adopted two children and he talks about some of the challenges in that process. Dr. Nero has been a professor at several universities; since 1983, has been on the faculty at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, where he has an Endowed Professorship. In his discussion of academia, he notes that one faculty mentor early in his career discouraged from focusing on homosexuality as a research focus, warning him he would never get tenure doing that type of work.
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.
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Publication Date
11-23-2021
Publisher
USM Special Collections
City
Lewiston, Maine
Keywords
Decatur Alabama, Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Xavier University of New Orleans, Indiana University, Valdosta College, Georgia, Ithaca College, New York, Ithaca New York HIV/AIDS Taskforce, Bates College, academia, discrimination, homophobia, racism, religion, employment, anti-gay and lesbian violence, homosexual panic defense, white supremacy, marriage equality, interracial relationship, adoption
Disciplines
History of Gender | Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies | Oral History | Women's Studies
Recommended Citation
Elabe, Hana, "Nero, Dr. Charles" (2021). Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection. 73.
https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/querying_ohproject/73
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Included in
History of Gender Commons, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons, Oral History Commons, Women's Studies Commons
