Gregory

Gregory, age 5

New Brunswick, Canada (1989)

Here I'm striking a pose by the pool in my back yard in Burtt’s Corner, New Brunswick. We lived in a very "back woods" town, and around this time my parents were approaching the peak of their now non-existent Evangelical frenzy. I had no clue that I was "gay," but certainly knew I loved posing for photos. And, putting on private concerts for my stuffed animals, to Bette Midler songs.

I used to love to pull the neck of an over sized t-shirt over my shoulder, which revealed a birthmark (which I felt made me look like Madonna), check the mirror with my mom, and apply face-cream every night like the girls in Noxzema commercials.

I loved almost any boy on television, but developed a strange attraction to cartoon characters (future fetish warning?), especially Wheeler, the red-headed bad boy from Brooklyn on "Captain Planet." Thankfully I eventually grew to love "real" boys, and was incredibly fond of Jason Marsden from "Step By Step" and Rider Strong from "Boy Meets World."

Being queer - in the country and in a religious family, which barely tolerated dancing - my pop culture exposure was small and dependent on my older step-brother. When our parents weren't home, we'd listen to New Kids On The Block, Guns 'N Roses, and The Heights. Thankfully it was enough to instill a curiosity that carried me out of the flatland of Christian pop.

My parents are non-religious and completely accepting now, and when I showed this photo to my mother recently I asked how she couldn’t have known I was gay, she blithely replied, 'Who said I didn’t?'

Gregory's first, famous-person same sex crush:
Wheeler (on "Captain Planet")
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