Korey Kuhl celebrating the end of Prop 8 in California in 2013 Photo: Provided
Tall dark and handsome Korey Kuhl appeared on everyone’s radar as one half of an Amazing Race Best Friends team with Tyler Oakley in 2016. After a trip around the world, the gay duo landed in third place in Santa Barbara wine country. Kuhl shares a podcast with Oakley called Psychobabble, has 143,000 followers on Insta, and is — wait for it — “Single 😎🤘🏻”.
A few years before his globetrotting adventure, Kuhl landed in San Francisco, where he found himself in a friend’s Castro Street apartment over a sushi restaurant on the day in 2013 that Proposition 8, the referendum banning same-sex marriage in California, was overturned.
“When the ruling came down, I mean, the streets just absolutely flooded, with people out celebrating with flags and streamers and kind of taking over the streets. And so my friend was like, ‘Let’s run up to my place so we can all watch the street below from the window.’”
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“It was funny because it was going into San Francisco’s Pride weekend. I mean, talk about timing.”
“Just having that bird’s eye view of such a celebratory crowd and such a positive group of the LGBTQ+ community all saying, ‘Look at the progress we’ve made. Look at the equal rights we’re fighting for, they’re starting to happen and starting to snowball.’ It was very powerful.”
“I grew up in Michigan. I’m like a Midwesterner through and through, and so much of my experience the first few years that I lived here was just like, so eye-opening and affirming of who I was and my queer identity, my gay identity. I felt a sense of community immediately. And I never felt that before. And so that’s one of the reasons why I’m here and why I love it here. It’s like, I can’t really go anywhere in the city now — having lived here for going on 13 years — without running into somebody I know.”
“Being part of such a resilient, strong, and loving community of people that promote kindness, promote love and inclusivity and being yourself, it’s empowering. It’s empowering to be part of that community. That makes me proud.”
Pride in Pictures is LGBTQ Nation’s annual series celebrating Pride across the country. We asked our readers to send in their pictures and stories of Pride and we got so many rainbows. Keep an eye out for more heartwarming stories to get you ready for Pride Month 2024.
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