Paul Cunningham is a retired United States diplomat who spent more than two decades in the US Foreign Service before settling in Melbourne three years ago.
Before joining the diplomatic corps, Paul taught high school history for thirteen years in rural Connecticut. As a Foreign Service officer, he served at US embassies and consulates around the world, with postings including Madagascar, Istanbul, Reykjavik, and Bamako, alongside work in Washington, before retiring and relocating to Australia.
Paul joins Seahorse Victoria life member Greer McGearey to talk about coming out as a long and iterative process, building a career in education and diplomacy across decades and continents where being open was not always safe or possible, the history of the Lavender Scare and the shifts in US government culture under successive administrations, meeting his husband and the community they have found in Melbourne through film, Midsumma, and lawn bowls.