Class of 1997

MIKE GLATZE Tells Stories ofYoung Gay America.

Three years ago Mike Glatze (far left) and his boyfriend, Benjie Nycum (near left), were working at XY, a San Francisco-based magazine for young gay men, but they yearned to understand the experiences of gay youth who lived outside the Bay Area. "We wanted specifically to reach out to kids in rural areas," Glatze says. So in March 2001 they charted a road trip from San Francisco to Halifax and set out with a laptop and a digital camera. "We pulled into towns and set up very informal interviews in a cafe or youth group setting," Glatze says. They named the project Young Gay America and posted the interviews on an interactive Web site, www.younggayamerica.com. Since then Glatze and Nycum have taken five road trips and conducted 1,000 interviews in 41 states and five Canadian provinces. "You've got tons of gay youth—basically a new demo- graphic—and they are waiting to speak out, to tell their stories, just to be recognized," says Glatze, who lives in Nova Scotia with Nycum. The project that started out of curiosity has grown to include a traveling photography exhibit, "Exuberance!," and the award-winning documentary film, Jim in Bold (www.jiminbold.com).