The morning after I watched the Gus Van Sant-directed, Sean Penn-starring, Dustin Lance Black-written Milk, would you believe I was inspired? But funny enough, what inspired me was Milk more so than Milk. An image I recalled wasn’t even in the film. It was a photo of Supervisor Harvey Milk, one of the first openly gay elected officials in the U.S., riding on the hood of a car in a San Francisco Gay Pride march, holding a sign that reads, “I’m From Woodmere, N.Y.” The sign was intended to show how far people came to attend the San Francisco rally, but it meant something more to me. It meant that there are gay people in every small town and every big city across America and the world. I was thinking about that photo in between assaults on the snooze button and I responded to Harvey’s sign. I’m from Driftwood.

There are gay stories from every corner of the Earth and I think they should be told. But why? What does it mean??

To the gay teens struggling to come out and deal with their sexuality, who to this day still attempt suicide 4 times more than straight kids, it says “you are not alone.” Other people have dealt with similar situations, families, communities and churches, and have overcome and are now living happy lives. It can happen for you, too. It gets soooo much better, I promise. Hang in there, kiddo.

And to the people who don’t support equal rights, it says we’re not all that different afterall. We all have stories and problems and loves and lives just like everyone else. So maybe we should all be treated like everyone else, too.

Nathan Manske

Nathan Manske is the creator and editor of the gay, true-stories blog I’m From Driftwood and a freelance copywriter. He is indeed from Driftwood, Texas, but has lived in Brooklyn, New York since 2003. Before creating I’m From Driftwood, he spent 4 years as a full-time copywriter, working first at Hanft Raboy & Partners, then Berlin Cameron & Partners, and has fortunately been able to combine his personal passions with his profession. His Chemistry.com television commercials raised awareness as well as eyebrows by taking on eHarmony’s discriminatory policies towards gays and lesbians. eHarmony has since changed their policies. He also found a way to actually get paid for being a geek by writing the third X-Men film’s interactive website for 20th Century Fox. Other work has included Match.com, in the U.S. and the UK, Lincoln, VitaminWater, Sony, Comcast, Howard Johnson’s, Diet Pepsi, Hertz, and Showtime. Nathan received an Advertising degree from the University of Texas at Austin.


Rafi Mittlefehldt

Rafi Mittlefehldt maintains the tech side of ImFromDriftwood.com. He’s from Clear Lake, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Despite growing up in a conservative community, he ended up having it pretty easy compared to many of his gay friends, and came out at 18 to full support. He spent seven years in Austin, two of which he worked as a reporter for a small paper, before moving to Brooklyn in 2007. Now he manages data and operations for Scholastic. In his free time he edits his first novel, which he’s currently shopping around. Rafi received Journalism and Computer Science degrees from the University of Texas at Austin. His family, his friends, and his dog Sky don’t care about his sexual orientation, but his boyfriend Damien does.


Marquise Lee

Produced under his newly founded company, Crush Deviant Media, Marquise Lee serves as director and editor of the I’m From Driftwood original Video Stories. Raised in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas, Marquise currently resides in Philadelphia where he is employed as a video producer & encoding technology specialist for Comcast Interactive Media. A video artist/filmmaker for nearly 10 years, Marquise has screened many of his works on broadcast television, in academic settings and at film festivals across the nation. Marquise also shares his thoughts and interests for your viewing pleasure on his blog, Diligent.ME.


Jessie Tilton

Jessie Tilton handles Public Relations and Event Planning for I’m From Driftwood. And when she says “I’m From Driftwood”, she’s not lying–she, too, is from Driftwood, Texas. She currently resides in Austin, where, when she’s not dazzling people with her IFD events, she’s dazzling them on stage or camera as a professional actress, having been in films in the past three South by Southwest film festivals. She is currently finishing up her degree in Writing & Rhetoric at St. Edwards University.