Barteaux, Kennedy

Interviewer

Kayla Woodward
Nathanial Koch

Files

Description

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.

ISBN

Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine

Publication Date

Fall 11-29-2016

Publisher

University of Southern Maine

City

Portland, Maine

Keywords

LGBTQ, Oral History, Maine, Transgender, Norridgewok

Disciplines

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

Recommended Citation

Woodward, Kayla and Koch, Nathanial, "Barteaux, Kennedy" (2016). Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection. 14.
https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/querying_ohproject/14

Multimedia Title

Barteaux, Kennedy interview

Creative Commons License

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