Kulaw, Jake

Interviewer

Nikki Farmer

Files

Description

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.

Publication Date

12-11-2019

City

Portland, Maine

Keywords

Childhood, family, education, mental health, substance abuse, career, teaching, health field, coming out, butch lesbian, trans, relationships, mother, activist work, Trump

Disciplines

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

Recommended Citation

Farmer, Nikki, "Kulaw, Jake" (2019). Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection. 58.
https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/querying_ohproject/58

Creative Commons License

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