HUMANS: Adam George Palios

S Humans of McMaster: Adam George Palios

Andrew Mrozowski

Editor-in-Chief

The Silhouette: Just to begin, if you could please give a brief introduction of yourself!

Adam George Palios: My name is Adam. I am a Hamiltonian [and] I’m an unabashed cheerleader for this city. I went to McMaster [University] myself — I’m a McMaster alumnus. I graduated from the life sciences program with a minor in psychology, neuroscience and behaviour. I always loved people, always loved helping people and found myself in a career in real estate where I’ve been thriving. [It is] not at all where I thought I would find myself — I thought I wanted to be a doctor — but then after finishing my undergrad, didn’t want to go to school for another 12 years. My partner and I, Steven . . . are queer advocates[,] community organizers and leaders here in Hamilton. So I sort of say I’m a realtor by day and a gay party goblin by night.

“So I sort of say I’m a realtor by day and a gay party goblin by night.”

What do you think Adam in university would say about where Adam today is?

You know what’s so funny? As a Gemini, I love reading my own tweets. I don’t know if that’s the thing that our signs do but I’m a very loud and proud Gemini. I was just looking through some of my drafts and I have a saved tweet that says “If Adam five years ago could look at himself now, I don’t know what he would say”. I meant that in a really positive way. I think if you look at if you had asked Adam 10 years ago where his life would be, I don’t think that he would have guessed where it is right now which is exciting and I think sort of speaks to this idea that you can plan as much as you want, but the best thing that you can do is be prepared. Have a deep understanding of yourself and what you want. Be kind, be honest and be open to the possibility that your life might not look the way that you expect it to and certainly not the way that other people expect it to.

“Be kind, be honest and be open to the possibility that your life might not look the way that you expect it to and certainly not the way that other people expect it to.”

How do you think your time at McMaster shaped where you are or who you are today?

Well, full disclosure and you can totally edit this out, I do think that post secondary education is a scam — not so much in Canada maybe. But the idea of forcing an entire generation to believe that they need to get into potentially tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt in order to be successful in a world that has not provided effective, accessible, high paying jobs. By high paying, I mean jobs where you can survive, live in and

“But the idea of forcing an entire generation to believe that they need to get into potentially tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt in order to be successful in a world that has not provided effective, accessible, high paying jobs.”

purchase a home and enjoy yourself as prior generations did have accessible to them. So I will full disclosure say that; however, that being said, I do believe that my time at McMaster was beneficial to me. I love the opportunity that I was given to study what I did which changed a lot throughout my tenure at Mac

. . . [it was] a place for me to mold and to combine my interests [and] my experience. My knowledge, as well as my goals and what that ended up in was a career in real estate, but what drove it there was me learning that I have a deep need to do well for myself, to make an impact on the world, to leave the world and people they meet better than how I met them. Essentially, that breaks down to helping people. I always had a really big passion for people, always always really good at people, so to speak . . . what McMaster did allow me to do was sort of explore what those interests were in an environment that’s still offered me a degree that is recognizable while exploring what I wanted to do with my life, with my world and who I wanted to be once I left McMaster.

How has COVID-19 affected the House of Adam and Steve?

Well, of course, the queer community is not a stranger to a strange virus wreaking havoc and fear on our communities. When the AIDS epidemic hit in the 80s, we very much felt — not that I was there, of course but learning from our elders who did survive that epidemic that doesn’t have the research and openness that I think it deserves — that community becomes more important than ever when times are scary, particularly when it feels like governments don’t care, or that governments aren’t taking the action needed in order to keep people safe. We know it seeing on Twitter, a lot of detractors [have said] “Oh, not one single gay person better complain about Pride being cancelled”. I’ll tell you, we probably weren’t. I don’t know a single queer person that was lamenting the loss of our party and parade because we understand what it means to put aside our own comfort, to make sure that our community stays safe. So while it was very disheartening and we had a lot of momentum

going, we never got into the party planning business to make money. We got into it because I don’t think that anyone loves having as much fun as we do. I don’t think that anyone loves Hamilton as much as we do and putting our money where our mouth was, to carve out queer spaces that didn’t really exist in the city, that was really important to us. It sucks, frankly, to not be able to continue doing these events that were so important to us, that were so fun, because fun is very important in a time when simply existing publicly can feel like a radical act . . . I know that we are very, very excited to start getting things going as safely as possible, keeping in mind [COVID] regulations and people’s comfort levels . We feel very grateful that some of the spaces that we relied on like Absinthe, being a open and queer venue, [has] survived because so many other businesses, restaurants and bars have not.

“[W]e understand what it means to put aside our own comfort, to make sure that our community stays safe.