Get to Know Steering Committee Member Gray Baldwin
Gray, they/them
The MaineTransNet board has recently welcomed a new class of members, including Gray Baldwin, a music therapist who lives in the Damariscotta area. Gray has lived in Maine for the last two and a half years, and brings decades of experience as an advocate for the queer community and as a counselor.
Gray grew up moving all over the country, and came out as a young adult, in the mid-nineteen eighties. When they were twenty two, their college has a “GLB” center (“things have changed a lot since then,”), and they helped to facilitate the Lesbian Support Group for Lesbian students. When their time as an upperclassman came, they decided to run for president of the center, and were elected.
At that time, there were eight different laws around public accommodations for queer people being considered by their municipal government, and give newspapers started calling the GLB center looking for students to get quotes on the campaign. This was when it occurred to Gray that they could step up as a public representative. “I learned a lot from that. I saw that when I would get fired up, people’s ears would just close. And I watched the way the older queer folks approached It - I didn’t agree with their approach at the time.” Gray remembers that many of the organizers would speak about how their loved ones could be queer, instead of being out and proud.
After this experience, their advocacy took many different shapes - they worked in hospice during the AIDs crisis, caring for people who died from the disease. “I came out right as AIDs was coming to America. It wasn’t called AIDs then, I remember when it was called GRID. There was so much anti-queer stuff. It’s different now, but it isn’t. It was better than it was before Stonewall, but it’s not the best. And I felt like I, and the people in my community, deserved the same rights as everyone else.” They always made sure to show up to protests, and to write and call their representatives. They lived in Massachusetts when marriage equality was passed by a referenda. They even remember the moment that one representative that they were working with changed her mind on the issue.
One of their primary methods of advocacy has been in their field - counseling, and specifically music counseling. They realized that many of their colleagues and peers were uneducated, inexperienced, and outright biased in the way they worked with queer people. Working with colleagues and allies, they wager that they’ve given, “probably hundreds of presentations over the years,” catching therapists up on topics like bisexuality 101, trans* 101, working with queer colleagues, queer research participants, and students.
“You know, when you’re living your life you don’t really think about the entirety of the things you’ve done. But when you sit and talk to someone about it you realize, ‘Oh yeah! I did a lot of stuff.’”
Now, they work in a private practice, mostly working with queer people and some queer and trans youth. Lots of their work is oriented around encouraging people, giving them tips to survive rural areas. “Having community is so important,” they said, “That’s why I was drawn to being a part of MaineTransNet.”
As a part of the board, they’re looking forward to helping use the skills that they’ve gained through their career to strengthen and support MTN’s system of support groups, hoping to bring more in-person groups to different parts of the state. They’re also excited to help work on a large scale behavioral health project that MTN currently has in development. “You know, I have a lot of skills, and I’d love to share them with a group whose work I really believe in.” We’re excited to welcome Gray to our board!
