Sam’s story (or Andy Sam, Andrew)

Gender: male

Sexuality: queer

Pronouns: he/ze/they

Current home: Charleston, West Virginia

From: Oil City, Venango County, Pennsylvania

Interests:  Got to Catch them all or at least all the ghost/dark/psychic types, pokemon plushies, card game, video game. Magic the Gathering thanks to preconstructed decks and the ever growing queers on YouTube playing and educating people on current trends. I enjoy studying anything medical related.  Have experience with D20’s and other counters. Been watching anime for 30 plus years and reading manga for 30 plus years too – I really enjoy how much the community has grown in the last 20 years.

Might be one of the elders responding to the photo series, I am either microgeneration xennial or elder millennial, or just gen X.  Since an early age my music tastes were all over the popular genre spectrum.  Most of the music I Iistened to as a child would be from my sister’s musical theater recordings, female popstars, and movie soundtracks.  My brother provided heavy metal, rock n roll, and the current top 40; since radio stations used to share them via vinyl in the 1980s and early 1990s this led me into enjoying hip hop artists too.

My coming out started way back in 1996 when a classmate asked if I was bisexual and I said yes, but didn’t really get teased since I was alright at sports and my hobbies were diverse; others in my school were not as lucky.  One student even made national queer news headlines when the bullying was too much and I think their family took the school district to court.  Then I would learn one of my crushes in school came out in college, so it’s safe to say the 10% rule in the 1990s/early 2000s did apply to my class.

The terms I’ve used to describe me through the decades are bisexual, gay, fae, queer.  I am also a kinkster, since I enjoy leather and wearing a pup/cat/bear mask.  For the last five years, I haven’t been any real relationship – seems being a queer kinkster in Appalachia makes for more questions than just being a traditional bear/doggo.

My gender expression just reads masculine.  I tried wearing pastels, flares, maybe a simple dress and my dang shoulders and chest say “nope you are meant for just crop tops and kilts and if lucky with platform clogs” Though I still don’t mind putting on a wig and lip syncing for a fundraiser.  My social rules are: single, versatile, switch, cosplay, art collector, small business promotion. I also happen to work in healthcare.

 

October 2024