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Feature Story
Sean Hemeon
Coverboy 2nd Runner Up
By Dan Odenwald
Photography by Jeff Code
Published on 12/16/2004

Sean Hemeon
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His is a cautionary tale, stuffed with all the necessary ingredients: youth,
beauty, alcohol, drugs, sex, crime, desperation and, of course, redemption.
It's difficult to imagine how Sean Hemeon, just 23, packed so much life into a
few chemically-fueled years. But it's a true story, says the recovering crystal
meth addict, one he hopes will prevent other people from making the same mistakes.
Tall, slender and handsome, Sean was a high school football and lacrosse star.
Popular and outwardly confident, he went to all the right parties and dated all
the right girls. But beneath the veneer of normality, he harbored a secret that
he shared only with his best friend, who was his secret boyfriend. For four
years, the two hid their relationship from the world. Even when his friend
moved into the Hemeon household during their junior year, nobody knew about
their love.
All of that came crashing down during Sean's freshman year of college. Sean's
boyfriend met another guy, and summarily dismissed his high school lover.
"I just crashed," Sean says. The twin hardships of being dumped and
coming out led to him attempting suicide.
"I didn't know who I was," he says. "I had this image of who
everyone wanted me to be, this straight, football-lacrosse, typical senior. And
that wasn't me. The only real me was with this boyfriend. And when he left me I
didn't know what to do."
Yet his suicide attempt opened doors to the acceptance he always craved. Rather
than reject him, his straight friends embraced him, saying, "We love you, man.
Who cares if you're gay?"
Restored and very much alive Sean tried an acting stint in New York City during
the fall of 2001, before heading back to Washington. It was then that he got
pulled into the drugs and all-night parties subculture. Alcohol binges
led to other drugs: GHB, ecstasy and crystal meth.
Through dating a dealer, selling drugs, totaling his car, getting caught by
cops with a stash of drugs, and smuggling drugs through airports, Sean still
hadn't hit bottom. That came when, unemployed and using crystal daily, he blew
a few grand on a birthday party and crashed afterwards, having a nervous
breakdown. A call for help to his parents led to his enrollment in a 28-day
rehab program. It saved his life.
"Treatment was an awakening," he says. "A lot of my drinking and
drugging was me running from myself, running from the fact of being gay."
Sober for more than two months, Sean goes to 12-step meetings every day now,
slowly nurturing his newfound sobriety with new friends also in recovery. He's
dealing with all the baggage he carries from being a closeted child in a Mormon
household -- dealing with the demons he tried to keep at bay with crystal.
"Crystal is a serious epidemic going on in this city right now," he
says. Looking back on his reckless sexual behavior -- multiple encounters every
day, many unprotected -- Sean considers himself amazingly lucky not to be infected
with HIV. But he worries about the risk-taking that he and others have taken on
the drug. "When you're on crystal, you feel invincible," he says.
"You don't care for your life, so you make bad choices."
Today, back in the land of the living, he cherishes his nearly 70 days of
sobriety, days that have allowed him to begin growing and learning again. Even
nightlife has lessons for him now: "I can dance without being fucked
up."
He's working again for a small nonprofit, where he does administrative work,
and is at home living with his parents in Virginia. When he's ready, he hopes
to move into a recovery halfway house operated by the Whitman-Walker Clinic.
And he's ready to seriously pursue his acting career again, hoping to enroll in
the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory in the future.
Sean's also healing his personal relationships. He's growing closer to his
family. He went paint-balling with his little brother recently, and his dad
came to a family night with his recovery group.
"I spent a lot of time running away from my family," he says.
"I've had 10 years to accept my coming out; they've had three. It doesn't
matter if my dad doesn't understand me, it just matters that he loves me."
Slowly, day by day, Sean's putting it all together again, learning how to eat
right and take care of his body again. Now each day is spent in search of
integrity rather than the illusory high that comes with crystal.
"I've been lying to myself for my whole life," he says, "but
I've learned the more honest you are with yourself, the happier you'll
be."
Second
Runner Up Prize Package |
$150 Cash
Apex -- Five Admission Passes
ATLAS/Lizard Lounge -- Lizard Lounge $50 Bar Hospitality Voucher
and a selection of Mixed CDs by Lizard Lounge Resident DJ Kostas
Cherry -- Two Tickets to Main Event
Cobalt -- $50 Bar Tab plus 5 VIP Passes
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Empire Video -- Ten Free Rentals
Freddie's Beach Bar -- Freddie's T-shirt
Halo -- $25 Bar Tab
JR.'s -- $25 Bar Tab
Leather Rack -- $25 Gift Certificate
Mid-Atlantic Leather Weekend 2005 -- Two tickets to Reaction Dance
(Sunday, Jan. 16, 2005)
Ziegfeld's/Secrets -- $25 Bar Tab |
Please note: Some restrictions may apply to
certain prizes. |
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