My name is Ian Livingston Brooking and I am a senior communications major from Somerset, Kentucky. My preferred pronouns are he, his and him.

I joined this project in an effort to understand a community that I had little knowledge of as well little experience in working with. While some people do not consider Kentucky as part of the South, I have dealt with many prejudices growing up in southern Kentucky. I was raised Catholic and attended the only Catholic church in a 30-mile radius. Somerset is a very Baptist community and I spent most of my time in middle and high school being told that my beliefs were wrong and that I was not ‘saved’. I suffered prejudices from people I considered as friends and fellow Christians.

However, I was most shocked when I came out as someone that supports equal rights (including same-sex marriage) that people in my own Catholic church community said that I was wrong and that is not “what I believe”.

Dealing with that for over seven years is what led me to this class and I have loved every minute of it. I have loved working with people who are open and accepting as well as listening to interviews of people who have suffered because they just wanted one thing: acceptance.

I have made it my life’s mission as a journalist to be the voice for someone who feels that their story does not matter or that no one wants to listen to their story. I will always be an advocate for equal rights and I hope that members of the LGBTQ+ are proud of the work that myself and my classmates have done.