Sound is often the string that holds the LGBT community together, from biting comments from a drag queen to protest chants at the capitol. Being unable to hear can leave some LGBT people feeling shut out.
“To me sound systems and megaphones are useless, so unless there’s an interpreter present, I can’t understand what’s going on,” says Jeffrey Payne, a former International Mr. Leather and founder of the Sharon St. Cyr Fund, which helps LGBT people pay for hearing aides and provides interpreters to gay events.
Dustin Neighbors has been slowly losing his hearing for years, and is starting to become a minority within a minority — a hearing-impaired gay man.