"Life is a lot more involved and complex than just your sexuality."
One of the things we least expected from our Loverboy endeavour was us needing to send semi naked selfies to Seth Fornea. But it happened. And it was just as cringe-inducing as you might imagine. Anyway that’s another story and it was all in the name of getting the story….which for SOME reason didn’t quite come to fruition.
But here we are twelve months later, we’ve all moved on from that traumatic experience and now we’re talking to Seth about coming out late, being bullied at school and those bareback bullies.
What made you switch from using your Masters in Analytical Chemistry to working the party circuit and gogo dancing? Do you miss using your degree?
I had been working as a chemist for seven years, plus six years in school by the time I called it quits. Thirteen years of science and I wanted a break. Science is painstakingly slow, monotonous, repetitive, but completely beautiful at the end of project when you can so elegantly present the results. But I wanted out. I wanted some extroversion in my career and some excitement. I also wanted to be my own boss, work hours I choose, and have the freedom to work wherever I wanted.
Even though I am not currently in a career path using my degree, it does serve me well every day. I am a classically trained scientist so my deductive reasoning and everyday thought process still follows those careful protocols and helps me make daily informed decisions. It’s also just plain nice to be able to understand things on a scientific level.
Are you and Jared still together?
Jared and I just hit our three year mark as boyfriends. We are still together, our first year was long distance North Carolina to Florida, our second year we lived together in North Carolina, and our third year we have lived together in New York City. We try to do our big gigs together, the ones we travel for. But as far as our weekly work in NYC, we pretty much work on our own schedule. Our work doesn’t affect our emotional bond at all.
You went to a very religious school and you came out late. Were you bullied for being different at school?
The school I went to was the epitome of bullying from both the staff and the students. Coaches were the ultimate bully as far as the staff went. I think back now and it all seems so ridiculous. I went to an all white, protestant school. The dress code was so strict girls couldn’t buzz their hair and boys couldn’t have hair below their shirt collar – talk about strict gender roles. It was an LGBTQ nightmare. Imagine being transgender in a place like this. I was lucky I was only gay and could easily assimilate. Everyone in my school was bullied. Whether it be for being fat, perceived as ugly, dorky, jewish, gay, book worm. Nothing was off limits. Kids were cruel and assholes. To be fair, they didn’t know any better. They were probably just repeating hateful rhetoric they heard from their parents around their own supper tables. It’s that small town mentality where hate and prejudice is just handed down from one generation to another without any particular generation stopping to think if its actually right. When the only exciting thing you have to do on a Friday night is ride in your Ford Probe from the Sonic to the Wal-Mart parking lot…….the next most exciting thing to do is be a bully during the school week. I moved on though. I have lived in better places for longer now and that time in my life is long overshadowed by good times.
You came out at 22. Are you glad you waited?
I came out when it was very apparent to me that it was time. I fell in love and it was so real to me…so I came out. I don’t think it matters at what age you come out….as long as you are being true to emotions. Life is a lot more involved and complex than just your sexuality. I came out when my sexuality was important to me.
You began go go dancing in Atlanta. What’s the scene like there? It’s known for its drag scene right?
I had my first gig at Heretic Atlanta in 2010. I didn’t really know of the scene there, I was so new and I am not really a follower of drag so I didn’t know any of the queens there.
You made a video supporting Hilary Clinton? Do you know if she’s seen it?
I would imagine she has seen it. Jared and I are friends with one of her close friends and advisors so I think he may have shown it to her….and yes, I do think she will make it to President. 🙂
Is porn a definite ‘No No’ or a case of ‘Never Say Never’?
It’s more likely that one of my home videos that I send to entice possible sex mates will make it out to the public before any produced porn video.
You’ve talked about wanting to get into acting. How’s that going?
Its going well. I finished an acting class and have started to get into commercials.
I saw your article about PrEP. What’s the feedback been to that? The Sword wrote a piece about it and one comment underneath was ‘Well this is a new development. In my mind, Seth was always kinda taking the high road…being out and proud, talking about his relationship, doing legit modelling, speaking his well-read opinion on issues. And now THIS?’ What do you make of that?
The feed back on my blog in the comments and messages from readers has been amazing. Most are thankful for my honesty. I think honesty will always strike a chord with people cause we are all a little more alike in secret than I think we would ever admit. A clinic in NYC actually reached out to me and said they are going to start using my term “barebackbully in their PrEP education.
The Sword took my blog entry and cut and chopped it so serve their purpose of creating a catching headline. My blog entry was about my informed decision based on my sexual behavior to start using PrEP. It was meant as a honest look into my life which I bet is similar to a lot of people to persuade them to look into PrEP for their own health if they haven’t already. I don’t really make anything of the Sword article cause it’s just libel. Rentboy took the same blog entry and plugged it in the way it was intended….bravo Rentboy!
