Editor’s note: This is the second installment of Spectrum South Snapshots, a Spectrum South original series highlighting southern queer folks and the communities in which they thrive.
By Josh Inocéncio
Name: Mike Rudulph
Hometown: Mountain Brook, AL
Current town: Birmingham, AL
How do you identify?
I am a 37-year-old gay man from Alabama. I was raised in a predominately white upper middle-class neighborhood just “over the mountain” from Birmingham, and now own a home in city proper. I live with my partner of over 13 years. We have two cats, Uly and Sergeant, and our pit-mutt, Khaleesi. I am a veteran of The United States Marine Corps, serving eight years during “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” from 2000 until 2008. During my career in the Marines, I deployed twice to Iraq and also spent nine months in Djibouti, Africa as a member of a provisional security company on base and at the embassy. About a year ago, I started a new job in logistics as a freight broker after working in the mortgage industry for eight years.
What’s a day in Birmingham, AL like for you?
My life isn’t much different than anyone else living the American Dream—countless hours at work and brief moments of peace spent sitting on my front porch with a few drinks amongst friends. I wake up at 5:30 a.m. to be sitting at my desk at 7 a.m. I work until at least 4 or 4:30 p.m., then meet a friend at the gym, and am usually home by 7 p.m. When we’re not working, we have a quickly growing selection of bars and restaurants that are just a short drive away. For the most part though, we enjoy being home with a close group of friends.
What are the greatest challenges of living in Alabama?
Well, it’s Alabama. If you remember the movie Jumanji, there’s a scene of an African stampede running through the city. At the end of that stampede is that fat rhino, still running, but struggling to keep up. That’s Alabama—behind the pack and behind the times, but oddly content with its position. The majority of the voting population places me on a hero’s pedestal because of my service. On the other hand, that same population won’t hesitate to push me from it the moment they learn that I share my life and my love with another man. Alabama is more concerned about salvation than starvation and education. Alabama is obese, it sees high rates of teen pregnancy and drug addiction, and it’s close to the top of the list for sexually transmitted diseases. The challenge is recognizing her shortcomings and living every day to help make this city and this state just a little bit better than it was the day before. We both have a history working with local nonprofits—for a short time, we ran a student veterans organization at The University of Alabama at Birmingham. We saw and continue to see the needs of our community and state and are proud to have a small hand in making our home a better place. The challenge is making the decision, in certain conversations, to avoid pronouns when describing my home life. Regardless, Birmingham and Alabama will always be home base for us. We are fortunate to have the love and support of our families, our friends, and our employers. We live in an amazing neighborhood, we have a beautiful house. To be honest, Alabama—and especially Birmingham—is a beautiful place to live. To sum it up, our greatest challenges are no different than those of others living elsewhere. We’re all just trying to pay the mortgage, remember to replace the filter, and decide what’s for dinner.
Mike Rudulph
What keeps you there?
It’s my home and we love it here. We have found that, even in Alabama, we have the ability to implement change, influence thinking, and change minds simply by being ourselves. Plus, we both have promising careers and plans for the future that will require us to stay here, even if for just another few years.
What would you want outsiders to know most about the region?
Birmingham has progressed by leaps and bounds over the past decade. I often tell people that I hate the fact that I’m falling in love with this town. Being an ‘80s baby and growing up in the suburbs, the actual city proper Birmingham was something I knew very little about. It was thought to be dangerous by our parents and we were constantly instructed to “get the hell back over the mountain” after we were done with any activities or projects within the city. I eventually went to school at The University of Alabama at Birmingham and started spending a lot more time within the city—at a few select restaurants and, of course, the gay clubs. I still couldn’t stand Birmingham, though. It seemed as if the city was stuck in the ‘70s and provided very few healthy outlets for me to discover the man I was becoming, both as an individual and as a gay man. Birmingham now has a center specifically geared toward LGBTQ youth, a primary care clinic for the LGBTQ community, and an overall sense of community for her LGBTQ citizens. When we have guests stay with us through Airbnb, they are almost always astonished on how not-Alabama Birmingham really is. We have amazing food from the old meat and threes to restaurants owned by world-renowned chefs. People come from all over for the Sloss Fest music festival, different music venues around town, and to visit the Civil Rights Institute. We have amazing food, even better beer, and the feel of even better times to come as we grow as a city. #RollTide
