Jae Nale (R), an Orlando resident, always knew she wanted a baby, and she was determined that coming out as a lesbian wouldn’t change her chances of having one. Jae was artificially inseminated in the early 1980s, which was almost unheard of among lesbians in the south. She came in with her daughter, Stacy Nale (L), a psychologist, to talk about Stacy’s often difficult experiences being raised in rural Mississippi by a lesbian mother. Stacy then told her own coming out story. Both women have worked hard to change people’s conceptions of lesbians, and, in Jae’s words, “they can only stereotype us if they don’t know who we really are.”
Later, Stacy and her fiancĂ, LeShun Stadom, took us out dancing!
And then we talked Stacy (R) and LeShun (L) into coming in for an interview of their own. LeShun talked about being raised by her loving grandparents after the death of her mother, becoming a firefighter in Orlando, and meeting Stacy, the love of her life.
