Tag Archives: kevin truong

A Note from Paul, in Oregon…

“My life partner, Joe, and I live in the Cascade Mountains foothills near a small town which had a reputation of extreme bigotry until very recently. We’ve been here nearly three years and never experienced blatant discrimination.

At first some people assumed we were brothers, even though we don’t look similar at all. We simply stated ‘we are partners’ and have friendly relationships with many people in town. There are other gay men in the area; we appear to be the most open couple.

We censor our behavior in public by not showing physical affection: no hand-holding, hugs, or kissing. Unlike New York City where I frequently kissed my boyfriend in public because that behavior is a regular aspect of city life, we wouldn’t try it here. This community is evolving, but they aren’t there yet.

Joe and I are frustrated by mass media representations of how gays are supposed to dress and live. Many gay men aren’t caught up in the latest fashion and don’t shop IKEA. We have fulfilling friendships with straight men and women. We work in every occupation, even the unglamorous ones. We aren’t all ‘special’ and our lives aren’t overly dramatic roller coaster rides. It’s disappointing we don’t see more stories in the media about regular guys doing good things in the world.”

Joe Patton works on our small farm year-round, raising food, chopping firewood and keeping the house in order. His photo journal is followed by many people around the world. Paul Bright makes feature films about reluctant heroes striving to make the world a better place.

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Twitter: @paulbrightfilms

photo provided by Paul

Thang, New York City

photo by Kevin Truong

Thang, in his own words: “I’ve been examining half-scraps of my childhood. They are pieces of distant life that have no form or meaning. They are things that just happened like lint.”
—Richard Brautigan

Michael, Interactive Media Marketing Coordinator, New York City

photo by Kevin Truong

Photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

Michael, in his own words: “To me, being gay doesn’t mean anything different than being straight. There are the obvious things, of course, like who I’m staring at in the gym versus who the guy I’m staring at is staring at, but being “out” is an entirely different thing. It’s gratifying in a way that I can scarcely find words to describe. It’s like when you envision your future self, you project a great future that often times seems light years away. Then one day, you find that some part of your dreams has been realized. Having come out recently, I feel that I can accomplish my other, more outward goals and become the future self that I envisioned now that I have an internal foundation that is absolutely fundamental to my adult development—literally a launching pad.

As far as challenges go, I’ve been terribly lucky. I have immensely supportive family and friends that I can count on, and I am very fortunate to have been born after a generation of great civil rights progress, although we are perhaps in the middle of our biggest victories to date. The real challenge for me has been growing into myself and identifying what I want, or more importantly, figuring out what I don’t want. Since I moved to New York in late 2011, I have definitely been the kid in the homo candy shop. It’s been absolutely fantastic but sometimes the things you think will make you happy end up having the opposite effect. Regardless, I advocate this trial-and-error.

Being gay in New York is perfect and horrible. On one hand, there is relatively no judgment from the public, an acceptance I’ve been starving for since I was young. Also, there are so many men with similar stories to my own, and it seems like they’re everywhere; it’s easy to find a community here. But that’s also the biggest issue when it comes to relationships: there are so many options to choose from for everything—food, clothes, significant others—, investing in any one thing is difficult. Relationships are easily strained.

I still consider myself lucky though. Growing up in Kansas, I really did think that the “phase” I was going through would pass, that I would straighten out and be just like everyone else. When I realized finally that it wasn’t a phase, I never really beat myself up about it. To me, it was matter-of-fact, and I am very rational. Even though those days were only two years ago, it feels like ages. Now, things are good. I’m good. I can look forward to what’s ahead, and only because I’ve experienced what’s behind.”