Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project | Items From the Collection

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Querying the Past: Maine LGBTQ Oral History Project – background information:

The objective of this project is to collect oral history accounts of LGBT life, activism, commerce, and culture in Southern Maine and to make these accounts available through the University of Southern Maine’s Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity LGBTQ+ Collection

The Sampson Center collection includes important papers, photographs, and other artifacts representing four decades of LGBT activism, culture, and commerce in the Southern Maine region. The oral history project is intended to add an additional dimension to that collection. Through oral histories, the voices and stories of members of the Southern Maine LGBTQ community are preserved and made available to the public in an effort to enrich understanding of our community and to serve as an important resource for scholars working on LGBTQ history.

The project is coordinated by the Faculty Scholar for the LGBTQ+ Collection, Wendy Chapkis, a Professor of Sociology and Women & Gender Studies at the University of Southern Maine. Dr. Chapkis has many decades of experience using interviewing as a research method. The LGBTQ+ Oral History Project integrates USM students into the process of community-based research; after being trained, students serve as the primary interviewers and transcribers of the oral histories. Dozens of history interviews are now available on the Querying the Past page on the USM Digital Commons. A series of radio programs (created by students Casey Georgi and Rachel Spigel) also make use of those oral histories; the 6 part series was broadcast on WMPG radio in 2018 and is available to be downloaded on the Querying the Past digital commons page (see below for link).

The Querying the Past Project also includes a film dimension. From 2017 to 2019, filmmaker Betsy Carson recorded short (5 minutes or less), interviews conducted by Wendy Chapkis with members of the LGBTQ+ community about the role (and disappearance) of gay bars. The film project also includes an evening of story-telling at USM about ‘dyke bars’ (held in conjunction with the 2018 installation art project by Macon Reed “Eulogy for the Dyke Bar” in the now-defunct Area Gallery). Those interviews and stories are currently being edited into a documentary short film that will be available for screening in 2022.

Related Content

This project was the subject of a six-week special series, Querying the Past Radio, on Portland community radio station, WMPG.

From The Vaults: The Founding of the Maine Gay Men's Chorus
This two-hour collective oral history interview focuses on the 1992 founding, and first year of operation, of the organization The Maine Gay Men’s Chorus, in Portland, Maine.

Technical note: Audio files in this collection will download most efficiently with the Chrome browser. Should you prefer Firefox, be sure that you have the most recent version installed. Files may have a longer than average download time due to their size, and will not play properly if they are not fully downloaded. Streaming versions of the interviews are available on each page.

Citation

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.

For any other questions, please contact the Special Collections Department at: susie.bock@maine.edu

All works in these collections are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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Abdurraqib, Samaa

Iris Sangiovanni and Samar Amhed

Samaa Abdurraqib is a Black, queer, Muslim woman living in Portland, Maine. Abdurraqib was raised in Columbus, Ohio. She attend the University of Ohio, and later the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she received a PhD in English Literature. After graduating she worked as a visiting professor at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Next she went on to work the American Civil Liberties Union in Maine as a reproductive rights organizer. She now works for the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence. Her advocacy and organizing work has included places such as Sexual Assault Response Services of Southern Maine, Southern Maine Workers Center, and the Portland Racial Justice Congress. She helped create the For Us, By Us fund, a flexible fund to help support People of Color in their own organizing for their own communities.

Citation

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.
Antonik, Thomas

Ethan Masselli and Kailyn Braley

Thomas Antonik is a gay man from Maine. Thomas moved to New York City in 1979 to attend the School of Visual Arts. He was diagnosed with HIV in the early days of the epidemic and one year later was diagnosed with AIDS. He was a part of the People with AIDS Coalition. In 1989, Antonik moved back to Maine and worked part time while also attending to his health. Antonik is an artist who woks in painting and photography. He is also a practicing Quaker.

Citation

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.
Arbor, Kelly

Alanna Larrivee and Emma Wynn Hill

Kelly Arbor, who identifies as genderqueer, was born in Rumford, Maine in 1977. Arbor is an artist, educator, and proud activist. They have been involved with activism throughout their life including in college at the University of Vermont. In this interview, Arbor talks about overcoming challenges growing up trans in a rural community, and discusses such issues as poverty, classism, LGBTQ representation, sex education in schools, incest, consent, AIDS, and substance abuse. Kelly Arbor also describes being involved in the Maine-based group MESH – Maine Educationalists on Sexual Harmony – a group working to create a dialogue surrounding sex positivity and identity through performances and other community activities.
Barteaux, Kennedy

Kayla Woodward and Nathanial Koch

Kennedy Barteaux is a 38 year old trans man who grew up in Norridgewock, Maine who knew from a young age that he was queer. He was outed to his parents as a lesbian at age 14 and was kicked out of the house and moved in with a supportive friend’s family in Skowhegan. He moved to Portland at age 18 and got involved with the Dyke March. Barteaux discusses his discomfort with existing gender expectations and stereotypes in both the gay and trans communities. He talks about community organizing and public speaking with and for the trans community (including speaking to police and the medical profession). He critiques the Benjamin Standards that controlled access to hormones and other medical care and describes being denied health care because he was trans. Barteaux describes the first Maine TransNet contingent in the Gay Pride Parade and his process of becoming politically active as a consequence of being trans. He discusses the HIV/AIDS epidemic including loss of the only other gay person in his family, a cousin, to AIDS. He helped create a controversial AIDS education week in Skowhegan while he was in school and faced harassment for it. He discusses dating and judgments within the queer community about appropriate relationships and promiscuity. He discusses the positive role that the woman-owned sex shop Nomia played in creating access to good quality sex toys in a welcoming atmosphere. He also talks about the role of gay bars in creating and sustaining the community (including Sisters, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Somewhere Else). He discusses concerns about safety and danger as a queer/trans person and enhanced fear in the age of Trump. He discusses religion – both anti-gay churches and welcoming churches like the UU Church.

Citation

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.
Beck-Poland, Sherry

Ariana Wenger and Johnna Ossie

Sherry Beck-Poland is 64 years old and lives in Lewiston, Maine with their wife Dee, and two sons, Jacob and Joe. Sherry has dedicated much of their life helping others including fostering over ten children, adopting their two sons, working for DHHS with individuals with PTSD, personality disorders, and other disabilities, as well as their involvement with political activism for marriage equality, and their help in organizing pride in Lewiston.

Sherry has attended the University of Southern Maine for their undergraduate degree where they graduated with honors, then attended Seminary where they received their master’s degree in theology. Sherry is known for their work ethic as always having a job and attending school. Sherry is now retired and focuses on their boys, aged 18 and 19, their involvement in the church, and organizing pride events.

Citation

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.
Berger, Fred

Wendy Chapkis

Fred Berger was born in 1947 in Cleveland, Ohio. He went to college at University of Rochester and New York University in the 1960s. His older brother, who was part of the Israeli Olympic Team, died tragically in the attacks in Munich in 1972. Fred Berger moved to Portland, Maine in 1981 and played a central role in the gay community from 1981 to 1989 when he moved to Massachusetts to go to Social Work school. During the 8 years in Portland, he helped found the AIDS Project (with Frannie Peabody, Kristen Kramer, and Susan Cummings Lauren) and served as the first Board President. In 1982, he opened a bookstore on Pine St. called “Our Books” that became a defacto community center. After the murder of Charlie Howard, he became involved in the Maine Lesbian and Gay Political Alliance (MLGPA). In 1983, he started a newspaper “Our Paper” with a collective that included Diane Elze. He ran unsuccessfully for Portland City Council twice (1982 and 1986), paving the way for the eventual victory of Barb Wood. In 1983, he also founded a group to oppose an anti-pornography measure. He currently lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with his partner Ken (of 20 years) where he runs a support group for older gay men at the gay community center. He also lives part of the year in Wells, Maine.

The Principle Investigator for this project is Dr. Wendy Chapkis, Professor of Sociology and Women & Gender Studies at the University of Southern Maine. Professor Chapkis is also the Faculty Scholar for the Sampson Center’s LGBTQ+ Collection (from 2016 through 2018). The LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project integrates USM students into the process of community-based research; after being trained each fall, students serve as interviewers and transcribers of the oral histories.

Citation

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.
Brooks, Frank

Rachel Spigel and Elizabeth Wise Horan

Frank Brooks is a 64 year old Social Worker and Social Work educator born and raised in Maine. He when came out as gay in 1976, he was in a heterosexual marriage and he has a son from that marriage. He was involved in an LGBT parent's group, LGBT social worker's group, volunteered for the AIDS project, worked on referenda and political campaigns, and was a board member of both the MLGPA (now Equality Maine) and the MCLU (now ACLU of Maine). His life's work has been serving the LGBTQ community through both activism and social work. He's worked extensively with the LGBTQ community as a social worker, done dissertation research on gender nonconforming behavior in boys, and worked to make social work curriculum LGBTQ inclusive.

Citation

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.
Brushaber, Skip

Jack Barrett and Branden Pratt

Skip Brushaber is a 71-year old gay man who uses he/his/him pronouns. Skip worked as a nurse and social worker during the AIDS crisis. He was born in Buffalo, New York, on January 9th, 1947. Skip studied English in college but later became a nurse and social worker. He lived in New York and Pennsylvania before moving to Portland in 1980. He helped found the AIDS Project in 1983, a group in Portland that helped support individuals dealing with AIDS, and founded and wrote for Our Paper throughout the 80s, an LGBTQ paper aimed at covering issues related to queerness and the AIDS epidemic while the mainstream press was still ignoring it. Skip shares his thoughts on a wide range of topics that include gay life in 1980s Portland, working in healthcare during the AIDS crisis, current national politics, the loss of queer spaces, and the importance of recording queer history. Skip is retired as of 2012, but volunteers at the Westbrook Food Pantry and still does nursing visits part-time.

Citation

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.
Bull, Steven

Alanna Larrivee and Tracy Payne

In this interview (part 1 of a two part interview), Steve Bull describes growing up in the 1950s in Kennebunk and Cape Porpoise and becoming conscious at a young age of being “different.” At age 6 or 7, he was discovered having sex with a playmate. When, at age 13, his family moved to New Jersey, Steve instead secured a scholarship to instead attend an expensive boarding school in Massachusetts where he found himself surrounded by children from wealthy families and became aware of social justice, anti-war, and civil rights activism. After attending Johns Hopkins University for two years he returned to Maine to complete his BA at the University of Maine at Orono. At UMO, he met out-lesbian Karen Bye on campus and helped found one of the first gay rights organizations in the state, the Wilde-Stein Club at UMO. Because of his leadership in the group, he frequently appeared in hostile news stories and formally came out to his parents. His parents subsequently became very active in the first chapter of Parents of Gays (later to become PFLAG).

Much of the interview focuses on extraordinary early queer activism at UMaine through the Wilde-Stein Club. One of the first events planned by the group was a controversial dance on campus that made the group the focus of attention by the Christian Civic League. Wilde-Stein also organized the first state-wide gay conference, a Gay Symposium, which was initially opposed by University administration. Maine thus became one of the early battleground states around gay rights in 1974-75. Activists in the Wilde-Stein Club were also successful in removing a question from the university’s admission application that asked “Have you ever had homosexual tendencies.” Steve Bull describes working with Stan Fortuna, Steven Leo, and Mariah/Susan Breeding on feminist and queer organizing in Southern Maine, and with Gerry Talbot (the first African American elected to state government in Maine) to secure a gay rights plank in the Democratic Party platform (only the 2nd place in the country to do so). Working with Talbot, these activists also successfully removed all laws related to consensual sexual acts, including sodomy, from the Maine criminal code. Steve Bull discusses moving to Los Angeles after college to attend the People’s College of Law and becoming a Marxist active in the Lavender and Red Union and the Spartacus League. Toward the end of the interview, he talks about the HIV/AIDS epidemic, including the trauma of mass death among those in his social and political world, and his own experience living with HIV for 35 years.

The Principle Investigator for this project is Dr. Wendy Chapkis, Professor of Sociology and Women & Gender Studies at the University of Southern Maine. Professor Chapkis is also the Faculty Scholar for the Sampson Center’s LGBTQ+ Collection (from 2016 through 2018). The LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project integrates USM students into the process of community-based research; after being trained each fall, students serve as interviewers and transcribers of the oral histories.

Citation

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.
Bunker, Lisa

Molly Roberts and Jesse Lucas

Lisa Bunker is an author who lives in Exeter, New Hampshire and worked at WMPG at the University of Southern Maine for fourteen years during her process of coming out as transgender. She is the author of Felix Yz and an upcoming book called Zenobia July, but spent most of her life in broadcast radio before she left to pursue a full time career in writing.

Citation

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.
Caulfield, Christine

Wendy Chapkis

Christine Caulfield, a 64 year old trans woman, discusses growing up in a military family. She discusses the challenges of moving multiple times during the first 13 years of her life as a military dependent and reports that military culture in the 1960s and 70s was not welcoming to LGBTQ people. She knew she was ‘different’ from age 8, but had no language to express it. She was seriously bullied as a child and also experienced sexual abuse during those years by an Assistant Boy Scout Master. She discusses a suicide attempt she made during her first year of high school. One survival strategy she talks about was to present as hyper-masculine, including playing on the high school football team, though she was also active in a theater group which allowed her more range of gender. It wasn’t until she went to U Mass Amherst for college that she socialized with anyone queer. She discusses meeting many gay men and lesbians in college including a roommate who had a romantic interest in her. Her internalized homo and trans phobia led her to drop out of school and join the Marines in 1977 in order to enact hypermasculinity. In 1990, she left the military after achieving the rank of Sargent. During that period, she occasionally privately dressed in women’s clothing and ‘flirted’ with gay experiences. But she concluded she generally preferred women. Christine has been married to her wife (who she met in college) for 42 years; they have two daughters.

After leaving the military, the family moved to Maine, where Christine attended USM and graduated with a BA in Communication Studies. She discusses working in the private sector for a number of years, becoming a karate instructor, and then returning to school for a teaching degree. She had a very successful career as a teacher in the public school system in Gorham. In 2001, working with a therapist, she began to come to terms with her transgender identity and in 2007 came out to friends and family. In 2014 she came out to her colleagues at Gorham High School; she discusses how family, friends, and colleagues responded to her transition. In 2016, she was diagnosed with cancer, related to her military service, and retired from teaching. She discusses the importance of culture (literature, poetry, music, and theater) in her life and in shaping her understanding of herself.
Crewe, Dan

Wendy Chapkis

Description: Dan Crewe is an 84 year old gay man originally from New Jersey. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1957. Crewe was a member of the United States Air Force for four years, after which he moved to New York City and began a lucrative career in the music industry in production and publishing. He then moved to Los Angeles, California where he met his then wife, the musician Cindy (now Cyd) Bullens, and they had two daughters. The family eventually moved to Maine, where Crewe opened Gateway Mastering Studios and continued working in music. During this time, his 10 year old daughter was diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease. She passed away shortly after that. After her death, Crewe became very involved in local causes and philanthropy, and has been especially involved in supporting Breakwater School in Portland. The Jessie Bullens-Crewe Foundation, named in honor of his daughter, donated 21 acres to Breakwater school for youth education and supports the Maine Children's Cancer Program. The Bob Crewe Foundation, named after his brother, supports both arts and music initiatives as well as organizations that benefit LGBTQ communities.

Citation

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.
Cusack, Ralph

Hannah Cain

Ralph Cusack was born in Maine and has lived most of his life in the state. He is one of the founders of The Harbor Masters of Portland Maine, men’s leather club, and an active member of the leather community and a navy veteran. This interview covers his participation in the Harbor Masters of Portland, Maine, living through the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 80s, his participation in many years of gay pride events and the march on Washington in 1987, owning the gay bar Blackstones in Portland, ME, and his service in the US Navy.

Citation

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.
DeGoosh, Milo

May Hohman

Milo Degoosh is a 28 year old FTM transgender adult. He works at Bard Coffee Shop in Portland, and competes in National Barista competition. He elaborates on how the Queer community has influenced the Barista competition and how he is a Queer figure in this environment. Milo has two moms and big family, all of which have helped him in his transition. He started hormones in 2015 and has had many changes since, such as mood, attitude, and work ethic. Milo participating in the National Campaign for Marriage Equality by knocking on doors. The necessity and cost for transition is also mentioned in the interview, and what that process looked like for him.

Citation

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.
Diamante, Robert

Wendy Chapkis

Robert Diamante is a photographer from an Italian America family from New Jersey. He also has a graduate degree in theology. At an early age, he began to doubt religious dogma. He came out as gay in 10^th grade and stood up against homophobic taunting by successfully physically defending himself. He briefly had a girlfriend in high school who remains one of his best friends. He moved to NYC and attended Pratt University before transferring to the Portland School of Art (now MECA) where his interests in art and theology combined in a body of work based on Catholic iconography (those photos are now part of the Sampson Center LGBTQ collection). At the Portland School of Art he studied with Agnes Bushell and, through her, met gay author John Preston. Diamante did fact-finding on the Big Gay Book for Preston and photographed him for Flesh and the Word. Through Preston, he met and befriended porn star Scott O’Hara and became aware of and involved with the AIDS epidemic. In 1992 he began a charter member of the Gay Men’s Chorus in Portland, Maine (his photos of the Chorus are also donated to the collection). One of his early photo exhibitions was “Boyfriends/Girlfriends” with lesbian photographer Jen McDermott. After graduation, he started a photography business and stayed in Maine where he found other gay men who enjoyed such pleasures as camping and hunting. He also began traveling, first to India, Papua New Guinea, and Bali. He continued his studies at Bangor Theological Seminary where he received a graduate degree in 2010.

Citation

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.
Dionne, J. Remi

Daija Paradis and Johnna Ossi

J. Remi Dionne is a 42-year-old educator and was born in Northampton, MA but currently residing in Portland, ME with his husband. He spent some time as a professional dancer, touring and performing around the country and the world. J. discovered a passion for education, holding positions in both teaching and administration. He is currently a principal intern at Westbrook High School and is finishing up a post-graduate education leadership program at University of Southern Maine.

Citation

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.
Drew, Gia

David Kersey and Katie Prior

Gia Drew is a 52-year old transwoman who serves as the director of Equality Maine: an organization in Portland, Maine that provides educational programs to support the LGBTQ+ Community of Maine. Her life experience has greatly prepared her for this role, and she shares that with us in this interview. Her story is vast as it spans over several topics (as indicated in the “keywords” section), several different states, and two very different regions of the country. Gia struggles with coming out as trans for her entire young adult life as she navigates bisexuality, hypermasculinity, social pressure in K-12 schools, fear of HIV/AIDS, sexual abuse and her marriage to a woman, with whom she moves to a very rural community in Vermont where her queer community disappears. Finally, Gia, as a transwoman, makes a spectacular appearance for the first time at a Portland Pride Parade as she comes out in her forties.

This interview is unique for its seamless story-telling. Gia is an excellent narrator as she captures the emotion, whether it’s devastation or ecstasy, of growing up in a world mostly inhospitable to queer individuals. She discusses the power of love, and is deeply introspective and provides commentary on her motivations and is both critical and sympathetic of her past. This also provides an interesting study into the art of grief, and moving forward, as well as the twisting narrative of her life.

Ms. Drew makes mention of the work of photographer Anmette Dragon in her interview. You can see a selection of Annette Dragon's photographs HERE.

Citation

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.
Drew, Lala

Erika Chadbourne and Kate Brezak

LaLa Drew is a Black, queer, Georgia born, Maine native. Drew was raised in Gray, Maine with their adoptive family. Drew is a writer, poet, activist, performer, artist, teacher, and inspirational catalyst for change. Much of Drew’s community engagement focuses on raising awareness about the black identity and embodiment. They teach an after-school program in Lewiston, Maine where they help students learn about climate change, capitalism, and racism. Drew is also known for their work as a writer. Their work has been published in Ms. Magazine, The Maine Sunday Telegram, The Deepwater Column, and the Portland Phoenix. They write about themes that address the queer identity and share their views on love, sex, and pleasure throughout their poetic longings. Drew also contributes to the Maine Humanities Council and has been a part of the Portland Pride Parade. They have overcome several childhood hardships as an adoptee. They share their views on self-care and hopes for changing the dominant narratives surrounding trauma and recovery.

Citation

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.
Edwards, Florence

Roukia Houssein and Annie Karim

The interview was conducted in a USM classroom Roukia and Annie. Florence is a 40 years old dentist who also served in the military. In this interview, Florence shared their journey in being a queer black woman in the military. Florence was asked about their identity and their story on coming out as their preferred sexuality. In the interview, Florence also talks about being a dentist in the military and also outside of the military. In the interview, Florence puts important people in their life in specific stories. They also touched on their education and difference in living in NY, Maine, Chicago, and DC and how did that impact their life. Florence also shared the different bars she went to during her time in DC and also bars in Maine.
Ekart, Donna

Gretchen Muehle and Brooke Hall

Donna Ekart is a 53-year-old queer, femme woman living in Portland, Maine. Ekart grew up in Manhattan, Kansas surrounded by both her immediate and extended family. Ekart moved to Portland, Maine with her wife when she was in her mid-forties. Ekart came out as queer to her friends and family when she was 40-years-old. She has been involved in LGBTQ+ organizations including Equality Maine, which is Maine’s biggest queer organization whose aim is to secure full equality for the LGBTQ+ community in Maine through political action, community organizing, education, and collaboration. Ekart’s religious identity and relationship with the Catholic Church played a big role in shaping who she is today. Although Ekart has faced challenges both within and outside the queer community with feeling invisible as a queer femme woman, the acceptance and support she received when she came out as queer to her Midwestern family is a heart-warming and rare story for someone born in the late 1960’s.
Elias, Richard

Benjamin Cornwall

Richard Elias grew up in Northern Maine and moved to Portland at a young age. In this interview, we discuss: coming out as a gay man, his family life, his experience with Portland gay bars (The Phoenix, Roland’s and Blackstones), some of his travel stories, his love for dancing, and the effect of the AIDS epidemic on his life.

Citation

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.
Ellison, Marvin

Elyssa Pennell

Marvin Ellison is a 69 year old gay man originally from Knoxville, Tennessee. He earned his bachelors degree in Religion at Davidson College. He then went on to get his Masters in Religion and Society at The Divinity School at the University of Chicago. Ellison then got his PhD in Christian Ethics at the Union Theological Seminary in New York. He was a professor of Christian Ethics at Bangor Theological Seminary from 1981-2012. He was also an Ordained member of the Presbyterian Church (USA) until he retired. In 1988 Ellison was on the Presbyterian Special Committee on Human Sexuality and he wrote a very controversial report at the time, which was very sex positive, feminist and LGBT friendly. His report was rejected by the church, but it sold 400,000 copies. Ellison enjoys doing social justice work in many different disciplines. He has formed two organizations that were very politically active; Religious Coalition Against Discrimination and Maine Interfaith Council on Reproductive Choices.

Citation

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.
Elze, Diane

Wendy Chapkis

Diane Elze is and has been an active member of the LGBTQ community in Portland, Maine for many years. Diane has spent most of her adulthood and professional life participating in activism and advocacy for LGBTQ adolescents. She was involved with the Wilde Stein club at the University of Maine at Orono, where she also founded the Greater Bangor Rape Crisis Center. After being unable to find a job in the Bangor area, Diane moved to Portland where she began working with the MLGPA, the Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and taking a leadership role with Outright, among many other organizations that she was a part of. Diane narrates many memories throughout her oral history, beginning from her childhood all the way until the present. She had been involved with most activist groups in the Portland area up until she moved back to New York.

Citation

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.
Fenton-Snell, Butch

Danielle Fraser and Jarod Wescot

Butch is 68 years old and was born in Youngstown Ohio, One of 6 children, Moved to Maine in 1980 to be with his husband. Family life was relatively normal for Butch in terms of coming out. However his father was not very emotionally available in general. Butch Knew he was gay from a very young age and did not feel as if he was ever confused about his sexuality. Butch later joined the military and was in the Vietnam War. Continued to move to different states and eventually ended up in Maine later becoming owner of Blackstones in Portland. The bar is no longer under his ownership but is one of the last remaining gay bars in Portland Maine. Butch is one of the original members of a group called Harbor Masters and continues to be an active member.

Citation

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.
Fortuna, Stan

Wendy Chapkis

The audio of the interview and the transcript are available to listen to and view by request on-site only in Special Collections.

Stan Fortuna was born in Rochester, New Hampshire. He left home at 18 after a challenging childhood where he experienced abuse and homophobia. Stan moved to Portland where he became friends with a group of gay and lesbian activists. They lived and worked together in Portland in the 70s. He attended the first Maine Gay Symposium in Orono and after that worked to form Lambda Of Brunswick, the student group at USM, Gay People’s Alliance the Maine Gay Task Force, Maine Gay Task Force Newsletter and Mainely Gay, thought to be Maine’s first gay publication. He worked for Maine Medical Center for over a decade where he witnessed up close some of the horrors of the AIDS crisis. Stan is currently working on a radio project in Portland, Maine called OUT Cast that tells stories about Maine's LGBTQ history.

You can listen to OUT cast HERE.

Citation

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.
Frost, TC

Josh Allen and Rachel Shanks

Please note: You can hear the audio for this interview by downloading "Frost, TC Interview Audio" at the top of this page.

TC Frost is a 44 year old trans man who grew up in the small town of Bucksport, Maine. He uses the pronouns he/him/his, and identifies as queer or trans. From a young age, TC felt different with his gender identity. He attended the University of Maine Farmington in the late 1990’s, and was the only school he applied to because it was “where all the queers went”. Having been into music since the age of 14, he began playing in bands while in college. Him and his band would make the long drive from Farmington to Portland every week to play at local gigs at gay bars in the city. One of his favorite bars to go to, where he felt most at home was a place called Sisters in downtown Portland. Coming out as lesbian in 1998, then coming out as trans in 2003 and “de-transitioning” a couple times thereafter, TC struggled with his identity. TC moved around to places like Massachusetts, California, Oregon, and Maine. Living and working in Boston, MA is where he solidified his choice to be trans. Playing music in several different punk bands and performing covers of songs in local bars, the bar scene was a major influence throughout his queer upbringing.

Having felt a calling to move back to Maine, he did just that. TC moved back to Maine right before COVID-19 hit. He says this impacted his ability to make new friends and explore the area and its people. TC worked for the Venture Out Project, a group who leads wilderness trips and activities for people in the LGBTQ community. Activities such as hiking and snowboarding are some of TC’s favorite activities, and something he does a lot in his free time. He also owns a company called T Bag Maine, where he makes small bags like fanny packs. Music, travel, nature, hiking, snowboarding, and the LGBTQ community have all been incredibly influential factors in TC’s life.

You can see a recording of TC's college band below.
Gormley, Quinn

Liam Dunn and Katherine Sucy

Quinn Gormley, who uses she/they pronouns, is 27 years old and lives with their husband and dog in Auburn, Maine. Quinn became involved in activism and trans liberation in 2011 after attending a support group with Maine TransNet, a grassroots trans organization serving Mainers. Since then, they have been highly involved with the organization and took on the role of Executive Director in 2016. Prior to Maine TransNet, Quinn worked in public health managing an HIV testing program for the Health Equity Alliance, one of the state’s main AIDS service organizations. She attended the University Church of Chicago for Percussion Performance. Quinn grew up an avid musician, which they hoped to turn into a career in college. Quinn deeply values their relationships with friends and family. They believe there is something to be learned from everyone, even those with vastly different worldviews.
Griffith, Kirsten

Beth Gibson

Kirsten Griffith is a thirty-six year old woman living in Portland Maine. In this interview, she discusses her life from her early childhood up to the present day. Kirsten is part of the LGBTQ community and identifies as a femme lesbian. She is active in Portland Maine’s LGBTQ community and works with Pride Portland, the Equality Community Center and Maine Trans-net. Kirsten is a full-time student at Mount Holyoke and is the primary caregiver of her younger brother. Kirsten discusses living in California, learning about her sexuality, and her involvement in community projects through this interview.

Citation

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.
Grindle, Charles

Gwendolyn Wolf and Johnna Ossie

Charles Grindle is a 66-year-old man from Ellsworth, ME. He is a piano player, as well as a minister. He has been heavily involved in church, music and theater since childhood. He has also done a lot of traveling- he’s lived in Portland, Boston, San Diego and England. He has years of experience working for churches- doing sermons and weddings, etc. In his earlier years, he played piano at many hopping places- such as The Front Porch and the Inn By the Sea. He worked at Blackstones when it first opened. Other bars that he frequented were Styxx and Rollins. He spent a gap year living in London. In 1988, he was diagnosed positive for AIDS. However, he did not let that get in the way of living his life. Nowadays, he writes columns for the Peabody newsletter, as well as continuing his involvement in church, theater and music. He currently lives with his partner, with whom he has just bought a house. His goals for the future are to stay healthy and continue working.

Citation

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.
Harrison, Dick

Johnna Ossie

Dick Harrison is a 68-year-old gay man who uses he/him/his pronouns. Originally from Buffalo, NY, he moved to Van Buren, ME as a young adult to pursue work as an art teacher. He soon set to work connecting with other LGBTQ+ folks in northern Maine and just over the border in Canada, an effort that culminated in the founding of Northern Lambda Nord. NLN published a newsletter, organized dances, conferences, and social events, and operated a resource center and hotline for LGBTQ+ people for more than 20 years, providing a crucial lifeline for queer and trans Mainers in some of the state’s most rural regions through the HIV/AIDS crisis and beyond.

In addition to his trailblazing work as an activist in northern Maine, Dick enjoyed a successful career as a graphic designer, working for Loring Air Force Base and the University of Maine at Presque Isle until his retirement. Today, he lives in Portland, ME and continues his work as an advocate and activist for LGBTQ+ equality with SAGE Maine.

Citation

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.
Hart, Bunny

Johnna Ossie

Frederica 'Bunny' Hart was born in 1930. She spent the first nine years of her life living with her grandparents in Boston. Her mother died when she was three. When she was nine her father remarried and the family moved to Newton Center. She graduated from Junior College in 1950 where she studied History and English. From there, she traveled to New York City to look for work. Bunny first started dating women in the 1950s while she was living in New York. She worked as a stage manager in NYC in a time where it was very difficult for women to have stage managing positions, and eventually grew tired of the harassment she received from men. In 1963 she spent the summer in Ogunquit, Maine working in theater publicity. She spent every summer in Maine until 1968 when she decided to move there full time. It was in Maine that she met her future life partner of 39 years, Sheila. Sheila and her husband each knew the other was gay. Sheila eventually divorced her husband and she and her 9-year-old son moved in with Bunny into the home Bunny still lives in today. In 2008, Sheila passed away from lung cancer. Bunny discusses her work in theater publicity, her relationship with Sheila, being a gay woman in the 1950s and beyond, and her life in Ogunquit.

Citation

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.
Henderson, Susan

Emma Wynn Hill

Susan Henderson is a gay woman living in Portland, Maine. She realized she was gay after attending a meeting of the Wilde Stein Club at the University of Maine in Orono. After leaving Orono, she worked at the Portland Social Security Office and stayed there for 36 yeasr. She helped to write a newsletter for the Maine Gay Task Force that turned into Mainly Gay Magazine, a magazine that reached people nationwide. On the Maine Gay Task Force she helped to put on the Gay Symposia that the group hosted for almost ten years. She came out in the 70s in Orono and was involved in gay rights activism from then on. She discusses her time in the Wilde Stein Club and Maine Gay Taskforce, their work on the Gay Symposia, disappearing gay bars and the HIV/AIDS crisis.

Citation

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.
Hopkins, Susan

Ysanne Bethel

Susan Hopkins is a 53-year-old member of the LGBTQIA community, living in Westbrook, Maine. Susan grew up with her family on the small island of Vinalhaven in Penobscot Bay, hearing tales of her anti-racist bisexual aunt. A self-identified feminist in her adolescence, Susan recognized that she was not straight early on, but did not feel safe to come out in her small community. Going to the University of Maine, Orono, Susan experienced her first lesbian relationship and taste of chosen family. Eventually, Susan found herself at the Howard University School of Law, where she interned at Whitman Walter Clinic in D.C, and immersed herself in ‘queer’ culture. Many years later, Susan was connected with June Harris, a woman she dedicated much of this interview to, and they became close confidants. During their friendship, June introduced Susan to the hidden history of lesbian life in Maine during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Susan is passionate about Maine’s hidden sub-cultures, chosen family, intergenerational friendships, and the right to self-identify.

Citation

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.
Johnson, Myke

Marwa Abdalla and Colleen Fagan

Myke Johnson (she/her pronoun) is a 64 year old Unitarian minister currently living in Portland Maine with her partner of 24 years. She is from Michigan and later moved to Texas and Wyoming with her family. She is the oldest out of 9 children. She grew up Catholic and found herself being an activist during her college years. She became a feminist and was part of the Women's Peace Encampment, March on Washington, Marriage rights campaigns and many more. She got her doctorate degree in the Feminist Liberation Theology Program and became a minister in Massachussets. She then continued to do advocacy work and came to Maine and became a Unitarian Universalist Minister.

Citation

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.
Joy, Drew

Andrew Volkers

Drew Joy is a 37 year old living in Portland, ME. They are the executive director of the Southern Maine Workers Center. They have been organizing and participating in activism since early adulthood. They have participated in public housing activism with Survivor's Village in New Orleans, anti-racism work in San Francisco with People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER), and now working class issues such as healthcare for all with SMWC.

Drew has a very 'do it yourself', anarchism grounded ideology in their political beliefs. Their peer environment was in punk music, specifically the radical political sub-genres of queercore punk music.

Citation

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.
Kawamoto, Eric

Cosette Holmes and Tiana Cope-Ferland

This interview with Eric Kawamoto reveals a journey of self-discovery in Chicago, L.A., Boston, and Portland; an intersection between being Asian American and being queer; and survival of AIDS as a result of reserve. Kawamoto places these personal themes among his account of the LGBTQ+ and Asian American communities’ overarching struggles, like the fight for domestic partnership benefits, representation of Asian American gay men, and spreading awareness about Japanese American internment in California.

Citation

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.
Keppel, Bobbi

Megan McKnight and Janine Rynkowski

Bobbi Keppel is an 87-year old bisexual activist. Her father was a civil rights activist and union organizer; in part because of this, she felt she was a born “disruptor.” As a child, Bobbi Keppel was ill and struggled with being a “sickly kid.” She later married and had two children. During her marriage, she came out as bisexual with the support of her husband. She is a contributor to the classic anthology “By Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out” (edited by Loraine Hutchins and Lani Ka'ahumanu). For many decades, Keppel has been an educator on issues of bisexual identity and experience around the country, and as an HIV/AIDS safer sex educator with the Fenway queer health center in Boston.

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.
Koen, Susan

Michelle Pelletier and Skyler Hebert

Susan Koen in a lesbian women who has participated in many political and feminist movements throughout her lifetime. She was raised in New Orleans, but moved around a lot during her life, giving her a vast array of life experiences. She participated in the Anti-Nuclear Movement of the 70s and co-wrote a book called Ain't Nowhere We Can Run: A Handbook for Women on the Nuclear Mentality. In addition to this, she has studied and participated in a number of feminist collectives, including the Off Our Backs newspaper, the Women's Pentagon Action, and the Maine Won't Discriminate campaign. Koen wrote her dissertation on the organizational aspects of feminist workplaces, where she studied the New Hamsphire Feminist Health Center, Bloodroot: A Restaurant and Bookstore, and the Off Our Backs newspaper. Koen has a marked interest in music, has attended multiple different feminist music festivals, and loves Sweet Honey in the Rock, an African-American feminist musical group.

Citation

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.
Kulaw, Jake

Nikki Farmer

Jake Kulaw is a white transman born in Buffalo New York, who now lives in Portland Maine. His pronouns are he, him, his. Jake is a high school health teacher in Portland Maine, who is an activist and is involved in community engagement. He is passionate about teaching high school students on LGBTQ+ identities and safe sex. He talks first on his childhood and feeling like he was born in the wrong body. He had a lot of depression and turned to drugs and alcohol in high school and received substance abuse treatment in Albany New York. He talks on coming out as a butch lesbian to his mother and his experience feeling like he did not belong in the butch lesbian community. He has recently come out as a transman and has started transitioning. He shares his experiences with discrimination in the workplace as a former butch lesbian teacher from other staff and his superiors. He expresses concerns about the Trump administration and LBGTQ+ rights. He closes with advice for young trans people who have or may not have come out yet, highlighting building strong friendships.

Citation

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.
Leveille, Lee

Adele Hayward

Lee Leveille is a 30-year-old Californian transplant that grew up in Sumner and Greene, ME. S/he works as an intentional peer support specialist in central Maine and is currently finishing up his/her bachelor’s in Psychology and Community Studies at the University of Maine at Machias. S/he is an active member of his/her local synagogue after beginning the conversion process to Judaism in 2016.

Lee considers him/herself to be a transgender butch, or someone who lives simultaneously as both a butch woman and transman. His/her pronouns are thus conditional in order to provide him/her with the flexibility to adapt to different environments. S/he hopes to bring more visibility to how living in these two worlds can influence each other, as well as seeking to mend rifts between different groups in the LGBT community.

Leveille lives in central Maine. S/he discusses their experience with gender using a metaphor about living in multiple worlds. Throughout the interview Lee stresses his/her distaste for socially constructed identity boxes. S/he also delves into topics such as bullying, intimate partner violence, and abuse; being autistic; and converting to Judaism.

Citation

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.
Lindsey, Ian-Meredythe

Zackary Caron

Ian-Meredythe Lindsey moved around often during their childhood due to their parents being transferred for jobs. They lived in Oregon, Colorado, and finally Maine. Ian-Meredythe identifies as a non-binary transgender individual who considers themselves pansexual. Ian-Meredythe speaks in depth about their experiences with the erasure of themselves due to their gender identity and sexuality due to those not fitting within the gender-binary. Ian-Meredythe also focused on their experiences within the theatre, as they see very little room for non-binary individuals and storylines within the mainstream theatre productions. Ian-Meredythe focused on their involvement with Equality Maine, as well as their own personal activism to have the state of Maine include non-binary gender designations on drivers licensees, including the public response to the change. They also speak in-depth regarding the work they hope to pursue to further the inclusion of non-binary individuals on additional state forms, as well as their hope to have non-binary gender designations included on international forms, such as passports.

Citation

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.
Lois Galgay Reckitt

Johnna Ossie

Lois Galgay Reckitt was born and raised in Massachusetts. She attended Brandeis University and then Boston University for her graduate degree. After college, she married a man who was in the Coast Guard. They moved to South Portland to the house she still lives in today. She came out at age 33 when she was deeply entrenched in the growing women's movement. She had a rocky divorce with her self-proclaimed feminist husband who blackmailed her when he found out she was a lesbian. In 1971 she became the treasurer for the first National Organization for Women (NOW) chapter in Maine. In the 80s she worked for the National Organization for Women in Washington, DC. She was one of the founding board members of the Human Rights Campaign Fund, and in that role helped to push for federal money for AIDS research, and to create National Coming Out Day. She worked as executive director at Family Crisis Services in Portland for 37 years helping people in domestic violence situations. Now a member of the Maine State Legislature, she works to pass bills that address issues such as human trafficking, gay conversion therapy, and gay rights. Lois has been married to her wife, Lynn, for 15 years.

Citation

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.
MacEachern, Meredith

Skylar Hebert and Emma Chapin

Meredith MacEachern is a 25 year old graduate of Acadia University in Canada, and has completed the Stonecoast MFA program. The only child of two archeologists, Meredith spent her childhood in Canada and South Africa, with most of her middle and high school years in Brunswick, Maine. She is passionate about activism for the indigenous populations of Canada, and uses her voice as a writer to speak about stigma towards psychosis and mental illness. She is hoping to move back to Canada in the next year and act as a supporter of justice for indigenous peoples.

Citation

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.
Manson, Barry

Alanna Larivee and Emma Wynn Hill

Barry Manson was born in Skowhegan, Maine in 1947. He grew up in Rumford and worked in his father’s grocery store from third grade to high school. Manson shares his story of being an out gay man since the age of 12 and the uncomfortable environment of living in a closed-minded community in Northeast Maine. He briefly attended college in Tampa, Florida then Ricker College in Houlton. While living in Connecticut, he began hitchhiking to New York City on a regular basis to enjoy the city’s theater scene and night life. He moved to New York where his love for theater and partying kept him out until 3 a.m. He returned to Maine in 1969 where he became active in gay rights organizing in his local community of Lewiston and Portland, including being part of the Maine Lesbian Gay Political Alliance which became Equality Maine. He supported his community during the height of the gay civil rights movement, the AIDS epidemic, and during lesbian feminist activism. He discusses the Maine gay bar scene in depth, commenting on bars that no longer exist, such as Roland’s Tavern, the Oasis, Creamos, Cybil’s, and more. Since 1983 he has lived in a farmhouse in Waterboro where he gardens and keeps bees.

Citation

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.
Maxwell, Daralyn

Susam Cousins and Kelly Dyer

Daralyn Maxwell, Dal for short, is a 67 year old transgender woman. Dal lives in Freeport Maine but has moved around the northeast throughout her life. In this interview Dal covers experiences she has had throughout her life. Dal came out as a trans woman later in her life and she values her experiences that brought her to where she is today. Dal covers her experience working in bars and restaurants as a male presenting person where she helped women escape domestic violence. Dal also covers her coming out story, from being outed to her boss, to coming out to friends who refused to accept her identity, to finding acceptance in old and new friends. Dal has experienced love and loss, she talks about marriage, divorce, and estranged family as well as suicide and friends she’s lost. This compelling interview gives us an important perspective of a trans woman that stems all the way from the 60’s to today
McCormick, Dale

Wendy Chapkis

In this interview, Dale McCormick discusses her early life in New York City and in Iowa City. She describes a college era lesbian relationship that, when discovered by her mother, led to several years of failed psychiatric conversion therapy. McCormick describes the vibrant second-wave feminist community in Iowa City of the 1960s and 1970s and the role anti-(Vietnam)war activism played in her life. She discusses in detail the process of becoming a union carpenter apprentice and the harassment she faced as the only woman on construction crews. With the publication of her book “Against the Grain, a Carpentry Manual for Women” (Iowa City Women’s Press 1977), she gained a national reputation as a woman in the trades and, in 1978, began teaching summer classes in house building for women in Brunswick, Maine. She moved to Maine permanently in 1980. She helped bring Shirley Chisholm (the first black woman elected to the US Congress) to Bates College for a conference and describes Chisholm urging women to run for office. In response, in 1990, McCormick ran for – and won – a Maine State Senate seat facing an opponent who used homophobia as a strategy to try to defeat her; she narrowly won (she was the first openly gay member of the State Legislature and was re-elected twice). McCormick describes her focus on health care reform as a Senator. She also discusses helping to found “Women Unlimited” in Maine, an organization that helped women enter the trades and earn a livable wage. McCormick also discusses serving as Maine state treasurer and the role she played in the Investor Network on Climate Risk and the national Campaign Exxon Mobil. McCormick also describes many years of activism with the MLGPA to pass a LGBTQ Civil Rights Bill in the state, a bill defeated every two years from the 1970s to the 1990s. She discusses strategies and trade-offs in the pursuit of legal equality in the state.
McKenzie, Ellen

Caroline Wheeler and Marwa Ibrahim

This interview features Ellen McKenzie, an African-American lesbian woman living in Portland, Maine. Having lived in Portland for almost her entire life, Ellen can provide insight on growing up in one of the only black families in her community, the intersections between race and sexuality, co-parenting children from a spouse’s previous marriage and generally navigating the world and her career as a queer woman of color. Throughout this interview, we hear a lot about her childhood and her family’s history as civil rights activists in Maine, her relationship with her spouse and and co-parenting their children with both her spouse, and the children’s father and stepmother. This insight into LGBTQ blended families is insightful and interesting. We also hear about the loss of one of their sons to suicide. Lastly, she provides insight into her career as a social worker, and how to navigate the workplace as a woman of color and how she handles racism and discrimination.

Citation

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.
McKenzie, Mike

Wendy Chapkis

Mike McKenzie was born in 1971 and grew up in Scarborough Maine raised by his single mother. Mike knew he was gay in 1988 while still in high school where he witnessed and faced homophobia. This resulted in dropping out of school at the age of 16. At 17, Mike joined the Coast Guard and served from 1990 to 1991. As a very masculine gay man, he was generally well accepted by those he served with who knew he was gay but faced homophobia from a newcomer who outed Mike; this resulted in a discharge from the Coast Guard. Back in Portland, Mike McKenzie did security at a gay night club known as Chaos until he was offered a position in 1993 to be a security contractor for Portland public schools. During that time, he volunteered to be the director of security for the Southern Maine Gay Pride committee. The interview also discussed dating in 2017, the effect of the Trump era on him, and how the AIDS epidemic affected his life.

Citation

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.
Molinero-Fra, Baltasar

Sandra Jose

Baltasar Fra- Molinero grew up in Northern Spain with his four siblings and his parents.

Baltasar Fra- Molinero grew up in Northern Spain with his four siblings and his parents. He attended college in his hometown and out from the watchful eyes of his parents began to explore his sexual identity. Baltasar received a fellowship to study in the United States at the University of Bloomington in Indiana. It was during his first week in the United States that he met his now-husband, Charles. They knew right away that this relationship was forever. Together, they also knew that they wanted a family. Things were not always easy for Baltasar and Charles. They faced homophobia as a gay interracial couple from inside and outside forces but their dedication to themselves and their happiness prevailed. Their career choices separated them for one year and ultimately decided that Maine was their first choice to raise their long-awaited family. The adoption of their first son was quickly followed by their marriage in 2006 in Madrid, Spain with family and friends in attendance. Both Baltasar and Charles are professors at Bates College in Lewiston where they live with their adopted sons, Carlos and Bernardo. There is not a day that goes by that Baltasar and his family are not reminded that they exist in a world where racism is prevalent and dangerous. However, they choose to be open with their children with conversations and use their cultural differences as a strength and not a divide.
Moser, W. Jo

Wendy Chapkis

W. Jo Moser is a mother, photographer, political activist, and lesbian. She has experience working in childcare and is passionate about child welfare. Moser has a unique perspective as a lesbian parent being in a romantic long-term relationship with her partner of several decades. She sheds light on what living in San Francisco was like as a queer-identifying person in the 60s, 70s, and early-80s. There were experiences of social isolation she shared. This isolation was due to the fact that she did not always feel accepted in lesbian communities, but also felt that she had to prove herself to straight parents that had never met lesbian parents.

Moser was involved in multiple political organizations, many of which were directly involved in the LGBTQ equal rights struggle. Throughout this involvement, she used photography as a tool to capture and express her activism. She has direct experience with lesbian discrimination, as she explains her terror surrounding being fired from her childcare position. At the time, people could be fired for being gay and working around children, as they were seen as unfit caretakers. She has had a life full of triumph and recreation, and goes into detail about the coming out process and lesbian motherhood.

Citation

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.
Nero, Dr. Charles

Hana Elabe

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.
O'Connor, Christopher

Ian Butler

Christopher O’Connor discusses his experience growing up in New Jersey and then moving to Portland, Maine at the age of twenty five where he discovered his homosexuality. Throughout the interview, Chris O’Connor shares stories of his activism in the LGBTQ community through his work at USM, Equality Maine and through deejaying at a now closed down club formerly known as the Underground as well as sharing his coming out story. Chris O’Connor’s contains themes of overcoming bigotry, both in a community and against himself, as well as themes of self discovery. Additionally, Chris O’Connor’s interview expresses the importance of gay bars in the development and support of the LGBTQ community and his experiences after their disappearance.
O'Day, Janet

Johnna Ossie

Janet O'Day is 71 years old. She lives in Maine with her wife, Rosemary. She has one adult son. She was raised in a Catholic Family in Quincy, Massachusettes. She came out later in life after being married to a man and having a son. Religion is important to Janet and she was involved with Dignity in Boston and Maine, an organization that provides Catholic Mass and religious support to Catholic LGBTQ people. Janet continues to stay involved in her church community. During the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Janet worked at the Deaconness hospital in Boston as a discharge nurse with patients with HIV and AIDS. At this time Janet was also a Eucharistic minister and provided communion to people on the HIV/AIDS floor of the hospital, which priests at the hospital would not do. She also stayed overnight twice a week with a patient who had been discharged but needed a friend to stay overnight with him.

Citation

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.
Ossie, Johnna conference paper “Querying the Past: intergenerational conversations and queer community”

Johnna Ossie

Paper from a presentation given by Johnna Ossie (University of Southern Maine, Class of 2019)

Talking Bodies: fourth biennial interdisciplinary, international conference

Institute of Gender Studies at the University of Chester, England

April 10 - 13, 2019.

Citation

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.
Parsons, Betsy

Shanisa Rodriguez and Madison Leblanc

Betsy Parsons grew up in a Midwestern town in the 1960s and 1970’s in a middle class educated family active in the local community. Her father and mother were both teachers. Her mother and father met in Orono, Maine in English class before migrating to the Midwest. Parsons describes developing a love a teaching from her parents; she knew from a young age that she wanted to become a teacher herself and began teaching at Portland High School in 1977. She describes herself as a ‘late bloomer’ in terms of her sexuality; she didn’t come out to herself until her 30s but knew that coming out publicly would be a career-ending decision in Maine at that time. The Bowers v Hardwick anti-gay Supreme Court decision and the Charlie Howard murder made the risks very clear. She discusses being involved in GLSEN in the 1990s in Maine and supporting the Gay/Straight/Trans Alliance student movement; she was one of the first teacher advisors to a Gay/Straight/Trans Alliance group in Portland in the late 1990s. There are now 70 of these groups at schools around Maine. She discusses the ongoing harassment and violence that LGBTQ youth face in schools and the work that GLSEN chapters to try to counter it. She also discusses how becoming more active in this work required her to come out at age 42. In addition, Parsons discusses the AIDS epidemic and local community responses to it in Portland. Toward the end of the interview, she talks about recent national elections, including her deep concerns about the election of Donald Trump.

Citation

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.
Pezet, Antoinette

Emily Durgin

Antoinette Pezet was born in New York April 23, 1937 as William Anthony Pezet. She recognized she was bisexual in her early teens. Her family was accepting of her sexuality very early on. Before enlisted in the military in her early twenties, she married her first wife, Helga. Due to mental health issues, Helga and Antoinette divorced. Antoinette then married her second wife, Emily, and went on to have two children.

It was not until Antoinette was divorced from Emily that she started dressing as a woman. In her early fifties she had a conversation with Jean Vermette that first gave language to Antoinette; transgender. This language molded her own version of her gender. Antoinette identifies as “a man who lives as a woman.” She notes her strong connection to both men and woman frames her gender identity.

Citation

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.
Prizer, Peter

Wendy Chapkis

Description: [1-2 paragraphs providing an introduction to interviewee]

Peter Prizer, a 71 year old gay man, lived in Portland, Maine from the early 1970s through the late 1990s. He discusses growing up in Pennsylvania, going to a private boys’ school, and then to Penn State before moving to Maine. In Portland, he worked on the Portland Pier from 1971 to 1977. His first act of publicly coming out occurred at a panel event of local gay activists at Bowdoin College in the early 1970s. As a response to a homophobic comment by an audience member, he got up and joined the panelists on stage. Together with lesbian feminist organizers in Brunswick, including Wendy Ashley and Susan Breeding, he helped organize a picket of the Stowe House Restaurant (after they fired all their women servers and replaced them by men). He also helped organize a protest of the Freedom Train (1976 – bicentennial commemoration of the nation’s founding) in Portland.

He was centrally involved with the Maine Gay Taskforce and helped produce their newsletter. The newsletter later became “Mainely Gay” which he worked on with Stan Fortuna among others. In 1977, along with Lois Reckitt and Susan Henderson, he worked on an outline for what would be the first gay rights bill submitted to the legislature in Maine. He also served as a lobbyist, together with Stephen Leo and Nan Stone, to try to secure passage of the bill after it was introduced by Gerald Talbot (D-Portland) and Larry Connolly (D-Portland). He describes the reactions of several legislators to the lobbying (including Olympia Snowe who was then a state representative from Auburn). The proposed law, one of the first in the country, was defeated – though it received significant support.

He also discusses completing his degree (in Political Science) at USM, getting sober, working at Maine Medical Center Hospital, and moving to Bisbee, Arizona where he currently resides.

Citation

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.
Quezada, Alzenira

Wendy Chapkis

Alzenira Quezada, also known as Lady Zen, is a queer artist, singer and performer. Quezada was born to Brazillian parents and raised by white adoptive parents who were members of the Church of the Nazarene, a branch of evangelical Christianity. She was cut off by her adoptive parents when she came out at 17. She studied music at Evergreen College in Washington State. She grew up in Arkansas and spent many years in Portland, Maine before moving to Mexico where she currently resides. Quezada owns a production company in Mexico and also works at a queer run bar. Her current projects include modeling and working on poetry and song writing, as well as producing films.

Citation

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.
Rand, Erica

Demary Danella

Erica lived in Chicago for many years, but relocated to Maine because of her teaching position at Bates College. She is a Professor of Art and Visual Culture and of Gender and Sexuality Studies, and is acting interim chair of the Gender and Sexuality Studies department. She discussed her coming out process as well as her experiences as a budding activist in ACT UP and a branch of ACT UP, called The Pissed Off Dyke Cell. Erica talked significantly about her previous relationships and how those connections shaped her activisim as well as how her activism shaped her relationships. She spent the second half of the interview discussing her interests and passions for activism in this time of her life, her teaching and her ice skating. Erica also focused on her involvement, both personally and professionally with discovering and expressing sexual desire through her own journey with partners and her work with Salacious which is a queer feminist anti-racist sex magazine that began in 2013.

Citation

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.
Reed, Susan

Wendy Chapkis

Susan Reed was born in the midwest to a family with deep farming roots. She grew up participating in 4H and other nature and agriculture-based activities. She attended college in Berkley, California where she bore witness to student activist and military and police violence against students and civilians. She lived in California in the San Francisco Bay area where she worked for Berkley Neighborhood Legal Services, providing support to women getting divorces and restraining orders. In the 1980s Susan and 3 other women decided they wanted to find women-owned land and went to tour women owned properties, which is how she came across the Oregon Women's Land Trust (OWL). She met her partner Sage at OWL, and the two eventually left together because monogamous relationships were against the rules. They moved back to the Bay Area where they lived in Susan's VW bus and inherited an autobody shop from a friend. For 6 months they worked at their shop during the day and slept in their bus at night. Susan was the only woman mechanic at the time to work for the San Francisco BART. Susan and Sage participated in a marriage ceremony before gay marriage was legal, which was officiated by a former catholic priest. They moved to Maine with the intention to go "back to the land," and ended up instead settling in Portland, where Susan now owns an acupuncture practice. They were involved in some of the early pride marches in Portland, as well as feminist and spiritual groups.

04/26/2019

In this follow up interview conducted by Dr. Wendy Chapkis, Susan Reed discusses the role of Women’s Music in 1970s lesbian feminism, gay activism in California in the 1970s including the political rise and then assassination of Harvey Milk and the Briggs initiative/Proposition 6 (targeting teachers). The interview also provides more detail about her family including her mother and her mother’s brother who was gay. In the interview she explains that her mother modeled a life of service to others that Susan Reed herself has followed in her career as an acupuncturist. She describes the National Acupuncture Detox Association protocol that she used in relieving trauma among survivors of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. She also describes her work with classical Five Element acupuncture. In this follow up interview, Susan also talks more about her 40 year relationship with her partner Sage. She ends the interview urging young people to be careful, to be brave, and to be yourself.

Citation

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.
Rich, Penny

Bianca Sturchio and Johnna Ossie

Penny Rich is a 70-year old lesbian living in Portland, Maine. She recieved a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Southern Maine. She is known for her involvement in major social events such as Portland Pride and the Women's Coffeehouse, as well as her experiences with gay bar culture throughout the 60's and 70's. She spends her time socializing, exercising, reading, and getting involved in local political and social issues that affect the LGBTQ+ community in Portland, Maine.

Citation

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.
Robedee, Matthew

Hannah Gorham and Jason White

Matthew (Mat) Robedee is a 35-year-old gay man who lives in Portland, Maine. For seven years, he was a health and outreach worker and former prevention programs manager for the Frannie Peabody Center, in Portland. He has also worked with organizations such as Portland Pride and Equality Maine and is currently a real estate agent.

Mat grew up in Buxton, Maine. In elementary school, he revealed to a friend that he thought he was gay. His friend reprimanded him, telling him never to tell anyone about his secret. That event set the tone for years to come, and Mat hid his sexuality because he thought it was bad. In addition to believing that gay was bad, Mat was confused because he wrestled, rode dirt bikes, and spent all of his free time in the outdoors. He was not the Hollywood version of a gay man, so he thought that maybe it was a phase. When he was fifteen, he had his first same-sex encounter, and then came out to his mother. His mother, although accepting agreed it might be a phase and chose not to talk about it until years later.

Mat went to college at the University of Maine Orono, then transferring to Colorado Mountain College. He studied environmental education, wanting to be a medic for National Geographic. When he was twenty-three, he and his childhood best friend came out to each other. He then came out to the rest of his family and those in his social network.

Mat’s interests include leading groups in outdoor adventures and encourages people to walk barefoot, swim in frozen water, and even get naked on mountain tops. Connecting with nature has been a passion of Mat’s since his childhood. He speaks briefly about queering the forest, the radical faeries, communal living, and his best friend, Danielle.

Citation

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.
Robinson, Betty

Johnna Ossie

Betty Robinson was raised in Maryland and attended Colby College, the University of Maryland, and Boston University for her Bachelor's, Master's and Doctoral degree, respectively. She worked for many years in workers rights, for the Massachusetts Nurses Association and for the Maine State Employees Union. She worked briefly for the Massachusetts Battered Women Coalition before laying herself off from the position because the program's federal funding was cut. During this time she became involved in the Boston women's movement. After being involved in union work for many years, she decided she needed a change and applied for a teaching position at the newly formed Lewiston/Auburn campus of the University of Southern Maine, which she was accepted for. While working at the L/A campus she fell in love with her friend and neighbor, Francis, and came out to the community at the same time that she was applying for a Dean position at the university. Her partner was a member of the military during the Don't Ask, Don't Tell era. When Betty came out to her mother they didn't speak for 5 weeks because her mother was so upset, but she eventually accepted Betty's relationship. Betty is now involved in immigrant rights activism and became especially inspired to do so when people from Somalia started immigrating to Lewiston and attending the L/A campus. She now is involved with Tree Street Youth, a youth program based in Lewiston that provides programming for youth, kindergarten through 24.

Citation

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.
Robinson, Richard

Jessica Toomey and Billale Fulli

Richard Robinson is a sixty-seven-year-old gay man from Bangor, Maine. Rich knew from the moment he was born, he says, that he was gay. However, in order to avoid the consequences of coming out -- discrimination he could encounter from the Catholic church and the homophobic society at large -- Rich hid his sexuality for a large portion of his life. Rich was married to a woman for eighteen years. At the age of forty-one, he finally came out to his wife and to the rest of his family -- including his twin brother, John, who was also gay. After his divorce, Rich moved to Portland, Maine and met his husband, Rob, who he spent twenty-five years of life with. Rich has a passion for helping children and has worked as a teacher all of his adult life. Directly out of college, Rich became a teacher at Fifth Street Middle School in Bangor, where he worked for eighteen years teaching literature. During that time, Charlie Howard was murdered. One of the teenagers who threw Charlie off the bridge was a student of Rich’s. Once Rich moved to Portland, he taught at King Middle School in Portland and then at Freeport High School where, for ten years, he was the advisor of the Gay-Straight Alliance. Rich is currently the manager at the Equality Community Center in Portland. His mission, he says, has always been, and always will be, to help children. He is thrilled at the progress the LGBT community has made over the last several decades and is hopeful for future generations.

Citation

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.
Sacerdoti-Ravenscroft, Sebastiane

Samantha Round and Kaitlynn Werner

Sebastiane Sacerdoti-Ravenscroft is a non-binary lesbian, who uses they/them/theirs pronouns. They’re currently working on their Graduate degree in Psychology at the University of Southern Maine, as well as working at CIEE Maine, launching a podcast about mental health with their wife, and they are acting Chair of Pride Portland! During the interview, religion, mental health, activism, and family dynamics are discussed, as Sebastiane explains their life in Maine after living in many different places across the globe.

Citation

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.
Sage

Johnna Ossie

Sage explored her highly religious upbringing and relationship with her family. She is of Greek descent and her Greek-American culture played a large role in shaping her identity. Her parents rejected her during her young adulthood due to her sexuality and Sage discussed the impact that the ostracization had on her development. Her positive experience with being a part of a long-term, loving lesbian relationship was one that she frequently came back to during the course of the interview. On top of relationships and religion, Sage also examined her experiences undergoing workplace harassment and feeling unwelcome and unsafe in many of her jobs. She worked in academia, retail and food services management, and plumbing, with varying degrees of harassment and acceptance for her sexuality. She has extensive experience working in political organizing and activism for feminist-related issues (such as reproductive rights) and for LGBTQ rights and community development.
Sager, Rachel

Abbey Donahue

On November 16, 2018, Rachel Sager from Buffalo, New York was interviewed. Rachel Sager was a part of the Mattachine Society in Buffalo, New York. Sager was an improv actor at custom parties where she would explore male privilege through drag.

Citation

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.
Sawyer, Charles

Wendy Chapkis

Charles Sawyer was born and raised in Philadelphia in 1940. He describes the need to be closeted as a young man, dating women, entering the military, and being discharged on suspicion of being gay. This outed him to his family who were largely supportive. He fell in love with a young man for the first time at age 21; his then lover was 17. Once the boyfriend outed himself to his parents, the boyfriend was sent to a psychiatrist who, he reported, he had sex with. Sawyer talks about gay bars and police harassment in Philadelphia and describes early monogamous relationships. He met his life partner David in the early 1960s; they remained partners for more than 50 years. David was from Maine; Charles joined him in Gray, Maine around 1970. The two men were employed at the same furniture company for 38 years; their fellow workers knew they were a couple and supported them. In Maine, they occasionally went to gay bars in Portland though most of their friends in Gray and in Portland were heterosexual. Sawyer observes that gay bars in Maine, unlike Philadelphia were mixed gender (both men and women).

Sawyer was raised Catholic but became an active member of the St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Portland and volunteered with their soup kitchen. He discusses the early AIDS epidemic in Maine in the 1980s and early 1990s including fighting stigma (in this regard, he discusses Autumn Atunio and Terry Dannemiller). He volunteered with the AIDS Project and became Vice President of the People with AIDS Coalition (despite being HIV-negative himself). Sawyer observes that lesbians and straight women provided much of the support in those early years. Later, he worked with the marriage equality campaigns in Maine though he and his own partner decided against marriage for practical (economic) reasons.

Citation

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.
Smallwood, Thomas

Miasarah Miskoon and Winter Devyn

Thomas Smallwood moved to Portland, Maine in 2002 from Maryland and made the city his home. He has been a nanny for 14 of those years to two boys and watched them grow up under his care and treats them as family. He now nannies for two little girls, volunteers as an Outreach Counselor for the Frannie Peabody Center because he feels it is his duty to his community to educate and spread awareness. Thomas acts, sings and dances in theater, Maine Gay Men’s Chorus and performs as a drag queen, Miss Lajoy, at Blackstones during his free time.

His love for performing, music and dance started from a very young age and he went to Point Park University for Music and Dance for 2 years before dropping out to pursue theater. Ever since he can remember, he always knew that he was gay. At 16, he came out to his mother. He publically came out at 21. Religion played a huge part in his life and he still goes to the First Parish Church in Portland. He spoke about BLM, #takeaknee, and what the First Amendment rights meant to him. He also discussed the intersection of being a Black man in a predominantly white city. Thomas is also a strong advocate of the right to bodily autonomy with trans people, women’s rights to birth control and abortions.

Citation

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.
Solomon, Howard

Richard Morin and Michelle Johnston

Howard Solomon is a 76 year-old man who grew up in New Castle, Pennsylvania. During his early years, and still today, Judaism played a significant role in his life. His dad was a Kosher butcher, and Solomon attended a Hebrew school while growing up. Solomon’s profession was teaching history as a college professor at New York University, Tufts University, and the University of Southern Maine. Towards the end of his full-time teaching career, he taught a class about Lesbian and Gay History. During the same period, he openly discussed his homosexuality in the university context. He witnessed the AIDS epidemic while living in Boston and speaks about losing his partner and friends, as well as the overall experience the gay community went through during the AIDS epidemic. Howard Solomon gives an account of where he was during the Stonewall Riots in Greenwich Village. He speaks about the history of the organization Mainely Men. He also talks about the impact of the Charlie Howard murder; in that context, Howard Solomon discusses organizing a 2-day conference and a traveling exhibit about the murder. Solomon discusses living in France and the importance of the philosopher Michel Foucault. Solomon now lives in the rural community of Bowdoinham, Maine. Throughout the interview, Solomon talks about the importance of bearing witness and taking action, something he sees as of renewed importance in the aftermath of the election of Donald Trump.

Citation

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.
Twomey, Danielle

Elizabeth Cantey

Danielle Twomey is a trans woman who was born and raised in Maine. She was born into a working class home and has four other siblings. Her mother died when she was seven and her father’s second wife helped to put the family into a better class. Her father was abusive, as were her peers, and her younger years were “brutal” as she was “physically small”, “effeminate”, and “clueless” when it came to fighting. She watched the world around her to learn how to fit in. She knew she was expected to be like the little boys her age but she did not understand what they found interesting--she often found it “repulsive” and “gross”. She suffered from body dysphoria but swimming helped Danielle combat her aversion to body hair as she had an excuse to shave her entire body. Judo helped her to channel her rage and bodybuilding and weightlifting helped her find safety in her body so she could be the one to stand up to the bullies. She had her first queer experience in the military at eighteen but identified as a straight man to avoid the witch hunts during her time in the service. She married her then-girlfriend, and had her eldest son during that time.

After the military, she got a divorce and had a successful career as an out gay man. But traveling was where she could truly be herself: dressing up and going out to queer clubs as Danielle. She partnered with Phil for 5 or 6 years, unfortunately he found Danielle’s hidden clothing and did not accept her, as being in love with a woman was, “the worst thing a gay man could do”. Phil left, Danielle quit drinking, and although she “had everything” as a gay man, she had to live as her authentic self. She came out as Danielle at 40 and had a new experience of the hierarchy in the LGBTQ community. She lost many friends living in the “fishbowl” of being trans. She struggled to afford hormone replacement therapy for a long time, and now feels as though estrogen is a “godsend”; although she’s lost 2 inches, “as an old woman [she’s] still got it”. While living out as Danielle, she had a second child with her dear friend Catherine when she was 47. They married to fund the birth with their insurance. They are now divorced, as they’re better as friends, and co-parent their son together in Minot, ME with their 2 rescue dogs and cats. She also has two granddaughters. Danielle believes: “Those of us [transgender people] that can speak and be visible– should. Those of us who can’t, should support those who can. Those who can’t speak or can’t be seen, should be quiet and wait and know we are waiting for you”.
Vaughan, Cait

Kyle F. Cumiskey and Diane Martin

The audio of the interview and the transcript are available to listen to and view by request on-site only in Special Collections

Citation

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.
Vermette, Jean

Annie Holland and Olivia Tryon-Nadeau

Jean Vermette, born in 1954, is a transgender woman from Skowhegan, Maine. At the age of three, Jean knew that her biological sex did not match her gender identity. When Jean came out as transgender to her wife in the 1980s, her marriage soon dissolved. After Jean filed for divorce, she spent five years transitioning. In addition to working as a self-employed electrician, Jean has dedicated her adult life to advocating for Maine’s transgender community. She created the Maine Gender Resource and Support Service and spent over fifteen years speaking publicly to Maine college students and medical professionals about the transgender community. Jean recognized the need for more support from doctors and therapists, so she took it upon herself to educate members of Maine’s medical community. In 2000, Jean received the Pioneer Award from the Maine Lesbian Gay Political Alliance – an organization known today as Equality Maine. More recently, Jean has taken a step back from public speaking and is glad to see a younger generation of trans people making a difference in Maine’s LGBTQ community.

Citation

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.
Waitzkin, Rich

Kristen Cates and Emma Donnelly

Rich Waitzkin is a 69-year-old social worker originally from Akron, Ohio residing in Portland, ME. Waitzkin came out as a gay man in his late twenties after moving to Maine. He holds two Masters degrees in both education and social work. Waitzkin has years of experience working both in administration and in the home health care field providing therapy to the LGBTQ community. During the AIDS epidemic, Waitzkin worked as a social worker helping to guide clients on resources and even preparing some for death. Waitzkin also helped establish Portland’s first LGBTQ community center known as the Equality Community Center. Waitzkin has been involved with the political sphere by serving on an advisory board for former Governor John McKernan and fighting the AIDS epidemic in the 80s.

Citation

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.
Ward, Jeffrey

Benjamin Cornwall

Jeffrey Ward, from Northern Maine, talks about his experience interacting with the Portland LGBTQ community and his experience coming out as a gay man at the age of 47. Some subjects include: his experience with the Casco Gay Men group, Portland Pride Parade, The Front Porch, Blackstones, his involvement in the Methodist Church, his family life, and how he met his partner of 16 years.

Citation

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.
Wilbur, Russell

Riley Kirk and Sam Penley

Russell Wilbur grew up in Waterville Maine. At the age of fifteen he dropped out of school and began working at a chicken plant and shining shoes. Russell faced a lot of hard times with his family for his mother was mentally ill, physically and mentally abusive and his siblings were all very homophobic. With a difficult childhood and unsupportive family Russel began to drink to cover up the pain of his childhood. During this time Russell began to sell drugs which resulted in him going to prison for a year. In 1975 Russel became clean and sober and began to go to AA. Russell left AA after he came out to the group and was told that they don’t want his kind there. To escape his reputation Russell moved from Waterville to Portland Maine, where he began to live as himself, an out gay man. When he left for Portland, he cut all ties with his family.

While beginning his new life in Portland Russell had two major relationships. Russell was fascinated by the education he never had and felt dumb for never getting his GED. Russell was a very hard worker and both of his relationships exploited him financially. Once Russell broke it off with both of those individuals, he gained empowerment from being single and has continued to be single for the last twenty years. Once Russell was single, he began his own cleaning company known as “Sparkle”. As time went on Russell developed many health problems which has resulted in him being disabled for the last ten years. During these hard times Russell found peace in painting frames of pictures. With painting frames came, Russell’s joy of gender bending every year in the Portland Pride Parade. This is the one day of year Russell always looks forward to enjoying with the LGBTQ+ community. Russell has a fascinating story filled many ups and downs but prides himself on keeping a sense of humor and a positive attitude throughout it all.
Williams, Maya

Daisy Pelletier

*Included at the end of the interview is an original poem read by Maya.

Maya Williams is a 25-year-old Black, queer, trans, Christian person who grew up in North Carolina. Ey moved to Maine to attend grad school at the University of New England. They worked at Maine Inside Out as an intern while at the University of New England. She has also worked at Equality Maine, and now works at Maine Trans Net. Her Christian faith is important to her, and organizations like ChIME (Chaplaincy Institute of Maine), and interfaith organization that educations and ordains chaplains, and The BTS Center (Bangor Theological Seminary), an organization that focuses on the intersection of spiritual leadership and ecological imagination, have helped her find religious community. Trans rights are important to Maya, and ey tell us about how bills introduced or passed in the Maine Legislature this year (2021) affected em.

Maya was named the Portland Poet Laureate this year. They are the youngest person to become the Poet Laureate, and the first Black person as well. The arts are an important part of Maya’s life. She talks about various arts programs and venues, Port Veritas, a poetry open mic, Dying Laughing, a video series, Space Gallery, Speak About It, a theater group focused on consent education, and the Maine Center for Electronic Music.
Wood, Barb

Issabella Rieger

Barbra ‘Barb’ Wood is 63 years old and lives in Portland M.E with her partner Carol. Barb realized she was queer her junior year in college when an underclassman that she met at a party took her back to her apartment and kissed her. After this kiss Barb recovered her other queer crushes through her series of romantic friendships with women. After college Barb worked as an insurance inspection agent in the state of Maine and later went on to become a resident of Portland. Barb was instrumental in the creation and distribution of Maine’s first queer newspaper OUR PAPER and would in later years become a founding member of the Maine Lesbian Gay Political Alliance (now Equality Maine) after the murder of Charlie Howard in 1984. Barb also went on to help Dale McCormick with her campaign for senate and won a seat of her own as the first openly lesbian City Counselor in Portland. Throughout her years as an activist and a prominent person in the queer community, Barb discusses her friends, community and many fun nights dancing and organizing—she even speaks about closing down The Underground/Styxx by throwing Penny Rich a grand 70^th birthday party.

Citation

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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