![gay bar asheville gay bar asheville](https://www.advocate.com/sites/default/files/06/bruce_steele_0.jpg)
I'd done a couple of other things and it was time to get a long lasting job, and so I interviewed and came here. It was the year I finished my dissertation and I'd taught for a year at my. I ended up in Asheville, because I interviewed for a job at UNCA. I wonder if you just wanted to start by telling me a little bit about yourself, how did you end up in Asheville? 00:02:00 Well, thank you so much for being here with us. Would you mind to say your name, how you would like it to be published and maybe pronouns or how we should refer to you?Īll right. Today's date is September the 29th, and I am here with David Hopes. Nothing will be published until I hear from you directly, and this is me being OCD, but I talk to every single participant, even if I don't interview them, just to make sure that I have their consent, even though you also sign this form, because this is a lot of private information, this is your life I don't want to. You can go through it line by line, correct errors, spellings, anything like that.
![gay bar asheville gay bar asheville](https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iKT3Ncm0nc7w/v1/560x-1.jpg)
Before we make anything public, David, I will email you and I can snail mail it as well, if you prefer, your typed transcription. With your permission, all stories will be archived with Special Collections at UNC Asheville, and available as audio, video, or typed transcriptions. I'm Amanda Wray, and I am working with Blue Ridge Pride and the YMCA to record oral histories from elders and members of the LGBT community in Western North Carolina. If you need to go do anything, we can pause. Thank you for sharing your time and the gift of your stories. Up in the left and your little light probably pops up.Īll right. It probably pops up for you, now, that you see that we're recording. Keywords: Coming out Hiding Hometown 01:12:52 - The Asheville Gay Bar Scene and All Souls Episcopal Church Segment Synopsis: David talks about his gradual coming out journey. So I think my being oblivious about stuff, in my deliberately oblivious in my writing, comes from being accidentally oblivious in my life. I remember being at this girl's house and her boyfriend called and, "Who's there?" Well he was, "Look, don't worry, he's not a real boy."īut years later I'd go, "Oh." She knew and I didn't. Things that said that people said about me suddenly made sense. It's sort of interesting that even though when I was in public school in Akron, people knew that I was gay and I didn't. I didn't have to undo lies because I'd never lied, because I didn't know myself. It was not without trauma, but not a very bad transition, but the coming out was gradual, but it wasn't tumultuous.