Harvey Guillén
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Three years later, they have a daughter named Stephanie.
From the outside, Stephen's life looks like a Norman Rockwell painting.
But he spent his whole life trying to fit into frames that don't quite match his shape.
He was adopted as an infant and raised by Georgia and David Russell, conservative people who loved him but never quite
understood him.
And there's another secret, one he buries deeper than the adoption.
Stevens, gay.
This is 1970s Virginia, where being gay can cost you your job, your family, and your freedom.
So Stephen does what a lot of gay men did back then, and still today.
He builds a life that looks normal from the outside, hoping that if he plays the part well enough, long enough, maybe the feelings will go away.
Spoiler alert, they don't.
Instead, Stephen becomes an expert at being one person in public and another in the rare moments when nobody's watching.
And maybe that's why he's so good at becoming other people later.
He's been doing it his whole life.
In his spare time, he uses his access to law enforcement databases to search for his biological mother.
He's exploring his position to learn how to find people who don't want to be found, how to access information that's supposed to be private,
It takes years, but he finally finds her.
Just before they meet, he's nervous but hopeful.
Maybe she'll want to know him.
Maybe she'll explain why she gave him up.