by Vu Doan

My name is Vu Doan. I am from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  Grew up in a very conservative Vietnamese, Buddhist household. So I had girlfriends and was very much focused on school asAnd as the night ended, and I think everyone celebrated the highlight of the night, but I don’t think anyone there knew how much it meant to me because it really sparked int...

by Gabriel Marenco-Garcia

My name is Gabriel Marenco-Garcia and I’m from Tomball, Texas. I grew up in a predominantly Latinx household, which was also dominated by Catholicism. Even the location of where...

by Vera Whisman

My name is Vera Whisman, I’m from Tulsa, Oklahoma. But this story doesn’t happen in Tulsa, Oklahoma. My partner and I decided in the 90s, when a lot of lesbians were doing thi...

by Kevin

I grew up on a farm in Western Oklahoma. I am the fourth of five boys. I didn’t know I was different but I was treated different by family and at school. I described it back the...

by Gay Lynn Costa and Kyle MceLwain

NOTE: We collected the following two stories in Salt Lake City on the 50-state Story Tour. Gay Lynn Costa and her son, Kyle McElwain, hosted us while we were in SLC and were qu  I’M FROM CHOCTAW, OK. By Gay Lynn Costa When my son, Kyle, was fourteen years old, I asked him point-blank if he was gay. He admitted to me tearfully that he was. We hugg...

by Greg Buzzard

After dinner last week, I sat down to watch Wheel of Fortune with my dad. I try to catch the show when I can—it makes me feel smarter whenever I can figure out the puzzles whi...

by Austin Scott

“It’s Liza with a ‘Z’ not Lisa with an ‘S’ ‘cause Lisa with an ‘S’ goes…” I twirl around and point with both index fingers to the man next to me.  He is in ...

by Robert Maril

I only get to go home about once a year.  No matter what my father may say, his sage advice that New York is my home now, that Ponca City, Oklahoma is just where I grew up, that ...