at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue the White House if on day one when I walked into

that building someone would have turned around to me and said hey you know

you're gonna be homeless using you know heroin on the streets of Los Angeles in

in about a decade I would have looked around and I said there is no way like

what are you talking about that's impossible but that's exactly what

happened

in 2003 and I went hiking with my roommate and slipped and fell this

doctor prescribed me a high-grade opioid painkiller and that was really the

beginning of kind of a downward spiral for me into full-blown addiction within

a few very short years I got into long-term sustained recovery because I

had recovery supports I was able to get things like housing I was able to get a

job I was able to get peers that would lift me up when I wasn't able to lift

myself up so late in 2015 I lost my friend Greg to an overdose when I was

still living in a sober living home and right after Greg died it seemed like

another friend would die every couple of weeks and it got to a point with me

where I had to do something it was hard to get policymakers to listen to our

community I couldn't get newspapers to publish anything I couldn't get town

halls together but I did have the power of my story being able to not have to

lie about Who I am anymore it's an absolute feeling of freedom yeah I made

a big decision about a year and a half ago to get public as you know not just a

person in recovery but an LGBTQ person in recovery and proud of it and it was

one of the best decisions ever because it allowed me to truly fall in love and

and and to experience this incredible life with someone else so we talked a

lot about addiction we don't necessarily talk a lot about recovery 23 million

Americans live in long-term recovery today right now here in the United

States but where are their stories because for me had I have not known that

recovery was possible had I have not seen successful recovery stories out

there I would have given up hope we want people to like know who we are we want

them to know what we're about we want them to experience this recovery journey

with us

you