HELLO HOMO LGBTQ+ Youth Visibility with Maxwell Poth

Hello Homo!

I’m a mom, and my youngest child came out a few years ago. I am a proud mom for my queer kid. This year already has been so hard for them (and me… or anyone with a conscience for that matter). I need help supporting my kid and protecting their self-esteem. Can you point me in the direction of some resources that could be helpful for me to give them? 

-Maggie, Denver

Hello Maggie!

Thanks for this question and for being an ally to your queer child! I mean, where do we begin? As a queer adult with so much support and security in my LGBTQ+ identity I find it hard to remain resilient in the current political climate. Daily I think about LGBTQ+ young people and I worry about their safety: emotional, social and physical. I can’t imagine being a parent of a young LGBTQ+ person today.

So, I asked a powerhouse queer role model and LGBTQ+ youth advocate to lend his perspective to support you Maggie, and other affirming parents of LGBTQ+ kids seeking ways to support their kids.

Maxwell Poth is a prolific photographer, creative director, founder of Project Contrast, a nonprofit that amplifies LGBTQ+ youth through the power of storytelling. He is also the author of Young Queer America: Real Stories and Faces of LGBTQ+ Youth. Both projects we will touch on in this interview.

Maxwell, when I read Maggie’s questions I instantly thought of your book and your body of work. With Maggie asking for resources, I think people often assume that will look like a call line, a LGBTQ+ center or meet up group. Also, books and visual resources like yours are invaluable resource for visibility of other queer youth and their stories.  

What thoughts do you have for Maggie and other OFM readers?

Yeah, I mean, like you said, parents can always look to their local LGBT Centers, queer youth groups and some moms find Facebook groups to be helpful. But that is literally why I made Young Queer America and why I built Project Contrast from the ground up. I wanted queer youth in rural areas and cities to be able to feel like they can see themselves.

I wanted some to be able to pick up Young Queer America, flip through the pages and see a queer kid just like them and go, “Oh my gosh! They are like me” and not just get to see other queer youth but read about what their life is like, where they are from, and get advice on how they feel living on a rural area or small city.

As a resource, your book helps build mutuality amongst LGBTQ+ youth and help break isolation.

Really that’s the number one thing, that all kids want is to feel seen and heard and loved, whether you’re queer or not. Adults too even.

And if a queer kid feels seen, it can literally change their life, and not just by their parents and their friends by their country. Kids are deeply affected by presidencies. It gives me goosebumps to see, because, like what kid wants to feel attacked by the person running their country. That is really sad and really scary.

Thinking of your own experience and motivations for creating this book, what was experience as a queer youth like?

I grew up Mormon and I was heavily bullied. But I am a fierce little Gemini and I never really freaking cared. I grew up with a pretty accepting family. It was that my community didn’t accept me

I came out in high school, and I grew up in a small Mormon town in Utah, and a small enough town that when word got out (that I was gay) people would talk about me. My mom couldn’t go to a grocery store without people stopping her and asking if the rumors were true. My mom didn’t know how to defend me at the time. She grew up around queer people, but she just didn’t really fully grasp it at some times. But we got there.

It was crazy; I got horribly bullied, not by my high school, but by everyone else, because I was a cheerleader. I was the first male captain of the cheer squad and people were not happy. I went for cheer squad my junior year and the school wasn’t going to let me. My mom was like, well, then, I’m going to sue you. And they were like “Oh…. actually he can do it now….”

Ok, come through Maxwell’s mom!! That some peak ally mothering! 

Yeah. So, I became a cheerleader.

I was heavily bullied by everybody. Every school, every away game. I would go to schools and people would have signs saying, “Maxwell is a F@G!” I was like, one, how do you know my name? Two, I couldn’t believe people were holding up these posters, and no one was doing anything about it. Adults would laugh at me. Parents would laugh at me.  Parents wouldn’t let me take their daughters to school dances because I was gay.

It was pretty crazy, but you know I just went with my truth. And then by senior year I became captain, and then by senior year high schools all over the state were popping up with boy cheerleaders. I kid you not, there were boy cheerleaders everywhere after that, and I was the first to do it. 

Just an icon doing iconic shit from the beginning.

Thinking of that visibility you created as being the first male cheerleader and the change that created, now in your thirties do you think that experience influenced your motivations to create this book and visibility in this format?  

Yeah, I mean, I just have kind of always been this person where, like, I just think about something, and I’ll go for it! You have to be a little delusional to live in Los Angeles and to chase your dreams.

I get it, from one delusionally ambitious sister to another.

So, before the book was Project Contrast. For OFM readers who are new to Project Contrast, it is a nonprofit that you started by traveling across the USA providing LGBTQ+ community building workshops focusing on education, visibility, and storytelling.

With Project Contrast we traveled nationally for three years and that was some of the best and most joyous moments of life. You know, being able to travel the States and give these kids a chance to be seen. To provide workshops for queer kids to meet others queer kids, some for the first time. Just seeing how happy they could be, was such a joy for me. I always knew Project Contrast would publish a book

Our very own local icon Ophelia Peaches is a great example of powerful visibility. She, like you in your cheerleading days was empowered at a young age to protect her queer authenticity. Sharing her story with other young LGBTQ+ people really help pave the way for other LGBTQ+ youth. Ophelia is in the book too!

Yeah, absolutely Ophelia Peaches is a great example of perseverance and being true to yourself. I’ve known Ophelia since she was a young teenager. I remember when she was a child starting drag and learning how to put on makeup with me. I know she’s going to take over Denver, if she hasn’t already.

She is a local icon for sure.

When the pandemic hit Project Contrast couldn’t travel. It was right then and there I was like, this is the moment I’m going to make this a book. The idea was received well; people wanted this book to be made. We got an agent immediately, who said yes to the project. Literally made the book, the book proposal, and within a month we had four publishing companies wanting the book. It was like it was rapid fire, like the country wanted this book. Even though it didn’t make a New York Times bestseller, I 100% believe that this book is going to even have a resurgence in the future.

The book has a universal and timeless aspect to it. From a psychological standpoint, there’s so much healing that takes place in simple mutuality, shared experience, and mirroring. For queer youth in rural areas there can be a complete lack of that mutuality. Project Contrast and the book creates mutuality for people in those rural communities who don’t have access to community through the visibility in these pages.

I want all of my OFM readers to go buy a copy of the book and I am giving away one copy. OFM readers can enter to win by following me on Instagram, and commenting on this post here:

To close Maxwell, what inspires you?

Honestly, I am drawn towards truth, compassion, and innocence.

I want to work with people that deserve to be seen, heard, and those are people who carry innocence, and to me carry truly a real truth to their aura and a real truth to what they’re doing.

That’s what drives me… Projects like Project Contrast and Young Queer America. Now, I have a lot of things in the works in the future that we’re working on now. And like, it’s just seeing that happiness and that real energy from queer people and people that just bring you pure joy. That’s what drives me to keep going, and like gives me the confidence to know I’m in the right place.

Beautiful! I have a feeling this will help Maggie and other OFM readers who are looking for ways to support queer youth and form connections in the challenging moment in history.

Thank you, Maxwell, for taking the time to sit down with me.

Go follow Maxwell on Instagram here for all the latest updates on his amazing projects.

Follow Project Contrast here

You can buy a copy of Young Queer America: Real Stories and Faces of LGBTQ+ Youth here

Enter to win a copy here

Follow me on Instagram @holistic.homosexual for updates on my column, and stay tuned for the next HELLO HOMO! See you next week!

Have a question you would like answered? Submit your questions directly to me at hellohomo@ofm.media

Disclaimer: Hello Homo is for informational and educational purposes and is not a substitute for mental health treatment. Hello, Homo (Jesse Proia) is not providing mental health advice, diagnosis, or treatment to readers. If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis or emergency, please contact 911, 988 or go to the nearest emergency room.