Category Archives: Los Angeles, California

Jacob and Hayden, Musician and Musician/Director, Los Angeles

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong


photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

Jacob, in his own words: “Being gay is AMAZING.

It means I can wear cut off shorts and a lady wig to a club and nobody will think anything of it. I haven’t tried it yet, but I appreciate the option.

I actually feel very lucky to be gay, and to be with my husband, Hayden. We have a great physical and spiritual connection that I feel like can only be achieved in a same sex relationship. It’s easier to truly understand each other (I think sometimes different hormones and mixed signals can make it a little more difficult).

It’s great having someone to watch horror movies, Jam out with music, play video games, and be totally crude together and then later cuddle up or bone down.

(With regards to challenges) Coming out in high school, I lost a few friends…but whatever, I’ve made better ones since then. My Mom Also had a hard time grasping the concept that gays were not just a walking virus. She said some hard things to hear and we don’t talk much these days.

Trying not to be “gay fat” is also a challenge.

I have met many excellent gays here in LA. I don’t know if I can tell you much about the scene here though. I spend more time at home than going out in gay town. The gays I do spend my time with are rad ass though. Artsy fartsy crafty gays. I’m lucky to have found a group of friends where we’re always trying to keep each other busy with our different art projects… which was always a dream of mine in high school.

In middle school I wasn’t out to my family… or really any of my friends. However, I never said no to a gay hook up when it presented itself..

I eventually became more comfortable with my sexuality and a little more open about it in high school…I was even sort of dating someone. I guess I was never too careful about covering my tracks either. The internet browser would totally remember all the porn I had looked at, so that was probably cool for my mom when she went to check her email and the browser suggested she check out gaybeef.com instead.

Then one night when I was 15, I came home from work and saw that my mom searched my room and found all my porn and placed it in a fanned out arrangement on my bed. Great. I went straight to bed that night, unable to face the embarrassment. The Next morning we had a fight and I left for school…which I decided to ditch. I moved out that night and was emancipated a few months later.

My mom and I don’t Speak that often. but we both love each other.. it just is what it is.
I’m happy with where I am and what I’ve been able to accomplish on my own. Being gay has given me great strength. and I am very proud of who I am.”

Hayden, in his own words: “Being gay…what does it mean to me? I’ve never really given it much thought. But, I would have to say that it means having the freedom to express myself. That sounds pretty cheesy, and sometimes its easier said than done. But, I’ll try and break it down.

Being a gay guy is awesome. I have a partner that understands when I need to find a save point before I shut-off the Xbox. He gets that some nights its better to stay at home with a 6-pack and watch horror movies all night.

My family, I couldn’t ask for a better group of people. Not only do they appreciate my weirdness…they encourage it.

My friends, they’re all so unique and incredible. We’re like a group of renegade artists. If someone isn’t working on an art project we get itchy.

Being gay to me means being fortunate to be myself and have the support it takes to do so.

I haven’t really faced many challenges for being gay. I came out in High School, which probably would have been tough. But, I think the black make-up and spiked collars took some of the focus off of the fact that I was gay.

Its difficult to describe the gay scene in Los Angeles. There are a ton of queers with a ton of different interests; a person has some options. I stay home a lot…ha ha.

My coming out story is totally boring. It was during 11th grade English class. The girl behind me used to read Metal Edge Magazine everyday. Our teacher was often intoxicated so I would turn around in my desk to read the magazines with her. She would talk about which rock stars she thought were hot. Never being one to shy away controversy, I tested the waters here and professed my love for Daniel Johns of Silverchair. She didn’t bat an eyelash but rather said, “Me too. I had a sex dream about him last night.”

Check out Jacob and Hayden’s music with Professor Possessor

Matthew, Manager of Operations, Los Angeles

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong


Matthew, in his own words:” “Matthew Boger was born in Pennsylvania and raised in Northern California. As a young boy, and having no formal education beyond the 7th grade, he was disowned and thrown out of his family home by his mother, after sharing the news that he was gay.

Forced to live on the streets of West Hollywood. One night at the age of 14 I was brutally beaten and left for dead in an alley by 10-12 skin heads. I never could understand how a kid my age could be hated so much that my life was insignificant to so many.

I am glad I survived and was able to grow up and see another side.

After years of living on the streets of Los Angeles as one of many homeless teens, I came in contact with a compassionate young man who offered me a way off the streets and a home for the first time in 4 years. I worked in fast-food restaurants and retail stores, saving my money to attend a trade beauty school in 1987 where I learned to be a hair colorist specialist.

From 1990 to 2005, I forged a successful career as one of Beverly Hills’ premiere colorists, quickly acquiring a celebrity clientele including Sharon Stone, Liv Tyler, Nicole Kidman, and Michael Douglas.

Horrified and compelled by the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard, a student at the University of Wyoming that was tortured and murdered in 1998, I began volunteering at LA’s Museum of Tolerance, which opened in 1993.

It was a way for me to use my voice to speak out against hate for all those who no longer have a voice.

In early 2005, I made a life-changing decision to leave a high-profile career in the world of celebrities to become the Museum of Tolerance’s Manager of Operations.

It was an easy choice. It seemed to be the right one at this time in my life and with no formal education beyond the 7th grade it was also one of my proudest moments.

It was at the museum that I connected with another inspiring man. A former white Supremist who left the movement and dedicated his life to helping others. A few months into our working side by side we realized we had met before…In an alley in West Hollywood when I was 14 years old. He was one of the ten skinheads who had so brutally beaten me. Today we share a friendship and a program called Hate 2 Hope. My goal is to give a voive to all those who have been silenced so one day this will never happen to another young gay teen or gay man.”

Check out Matthew’s program Hate 2 Hope

Haines, Creative Director, Los Angeles

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

Photo by Kevin Truong

Photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

Haines, in his own words: “Being gay influences all aspects of my life. Desire, curiosity, attraction, interaction, love, humor, passion and for me, creativity. It fuels my recognition that my friends are my family. And affords me a loving patience with my actual family as they comprehend what my being gay means to them.

I think, gays are more sensitive and artistic people because we spent so much of our young life pondering why we are different. “Normal” wasn’t our reality and thus required a deeper understanding.

Whenever conservative’s say “it’s a choice” I always respond (to their surprise) that they are right. It IS a choice. …whether or not to be honest with yourself. That is the main challenge for a gay person. If-and-when we will be honest with ourselves about our ultimate truth. But once we are, the rest is easy. The good people come forward and the lesser people make themselves irrelevant.

(The gay scene) is fine in LA. There are all sorts. I can do without the one’s who are all dolled up on the outside and empty on the inside, but that goes for all people.

I tend to lean towards the east side of town which means the little clubs and cafés in Silverlake and Los Feliz, but there’s something to said for the simple pleasure of meeting friends up in West Hollywood or down at the gay beach affectionately known as “Ginger Rogers” (AKA Will Rogers State Beach).

I always knew i was gay since junior high school, but aside from occasional “recreation” with a couple friends, I didn’t really come out until just after college.

At that time I was living in Newport Beach, CA and devoted to sailing. A handsome guy named Marc came down from LA with some friends of mine to go out on my boat and we all partied into the night.

The wind completely died and we just drifted in the moonlight. I asked if anyone wanted to go swimming but only got one taker. Marc and I jumped off the boat in our boxer shorts and raced each other to a buoy about 50 yards away. We held onto it, laughing and trying to catch our breath without catching each other looking. For a moment, there was total silence and we looked right into each other’s eyes and both just knew.

Right then the friends way over on the boat yelled that the wind had caught the sail and the boat was moving! We had to swim with all our might to catch up to it.

It’s really hard to get hold of a slick, wet hull of a moving boat but I happened to get one finger in the grommet hole of a bumper hanging off the starboard side. The boat pulled me along in its wake as Marc swam up to me. Instead of grabbing my hand, he wrapped both his arms around me and held on as the wake water poured over us like river rocks. We kissed beneath the semi-private curve of the hull and let the boat carry us for as long as my finger in the grommet hole could hold out.

Years later, all my (straight) friends who’d been up on the boat deck that night told us they saw the whole thing, had watched us kiss and didn’t rush us getting back aboard.”