Hes the first openly gay member of the Cincinnati school board.
Tell me a little bit about your childhood and how it shaped who you are today.
I had a fairly traditional mother who was also a difference-maker.
And there was a whole lot of give-back in my childhood.
Thats one of my early memories of that kind of thing.
It was a pretty picture-perfect childhood.
How did you meet your husband?
We ended up buying that house, and within 60 days, we were living together.
So I called him and I said, Okay, enough.
Weve starting making plans to move in together.
Come on, give me the facts theres somebody else.
And he goes, Uh, yeah.
Hes two and his name is Anderson.
And I was like, What?
You have a kid?
Bring him down here right now.
And maybe to some it would have been a liability, but my dream was always to have children.
Jimmy had this sigh of relief, and I had this, like, sigh of joy.
How did you move forward with growing your family?
After we were together maybe two years, we decided it was time to start getting things moving.
Youre so good with ours.
And I was like, Well, believe it or not, were kind of working on that.
And just that quick, his wife says, You know Joeys wife wants to be a surrogate again.
And she said just recently said that shed like to do it again.
So we had Olivier.
So we did, and that was Lillian.
Both Lillian and Olivier are biologically mine, and I also wanted one who was biologically Jimmys.
So that was Rocco.
And maybe to some it would have been a liability, but my dream was always to have children.
I work at Johnson & Johnson and Im very involved in diversity and inclusion.
What has fatherhood been like for you?
Its the most fun job Ive ever had.
Thats not to criticize other people, but the point is our parenthood was very deliberate choice.
And I also, I was 40 when Olivier was born.
And I am sure Im 10 times a parent, I would have been at 20.
To me, its a priority.
Its not just an extra thing; its job one for me.
I understand youre the first openly gay member of the Cincinnati Public Schools Board of Education.
What has that experience been like for you?
What I often heard at that time was, Im just so glad to have aparentrunning.
They didnt say gay parent, they didnt say straight parent, just parent.
At one point, I was actually theonlyparent on the board.
Its a 1975 Airstream 31-foot Sovereign.
This one was originally bought by a family with four kids, and they raised their kids using it.
And then this couple bought it from them and had it while they raisedtheirfour kids.
And then we bought it from them with our four kids.
It was like a childhood dream; I always thought I wanted one.
And finally I was like, you know what, the kids are old enough now.
So I did some searching, and I saw this one and it was just what I wanted.
Jimmy was like, Youre really doing this?
And I said, You better believe it.
We have memories to make.
So my sidekickaka Lillianhopped in the truck and we drove seven hours to pick this sucker up.
The kids absolutely love it and I think, frankly, thats why Jimmy loves it now, too.
I have saved my most important question for last.
Do you… do you have pet peacocks?
c’mon tell me about your pet peacocks.
So, we bought this old home in Cincinnati that was built in 1897 [pictured above].
Its the second largest house in Cincinnati, but it was abandoned, no power, no nothing.
And then, you know, I think you always have to have animals.
So, I found a guy who had a pair, a one-year-old pair of peacocks.
And he said, I thinkhisname is Steve, andhername is Victoria.
We also have a turkey named Tammy Faye.
And we have five hens: Hilda, Wilma, Eleanor, Gertrude and Bess.
So we go get our eggs out of the chicken house and come in and make breakfast.
That is definitely a thread of my childhood thats been pulled through to theirs.
