MILWAUKEE — Jason Orleans is changing his career late in life to follow his passion and hopes to inspire others to do the same.
The 49-year-old is pursuing his dream to be a fashion stylist at the Edessa School of Fashion in Milwaukee.
He said early in life he hid that he was gay from many people, especially from his family
“I realized when I hit 12 years old that I wasn’t like everybody else. Even though I was in a Baptist household, it wasn’t said out loud. The norm was you married someone of the opposite sex, had children and that white picket fence, whatever they thought was the traditional family and that’s the way it was,” he said.
Orleans said his internal struggle was immense.
“I was literally living a lie, I went along with everything," he said. "I went off to college, I was going off to study to be a preacher and then got outed in college."
He said that’s when the fear his family wouldn’t approve became his reality.
“They were not accepting of who I was and decided they wanted nothing to do with me, disown me. So I followed what I wanted to do versus what they thought what I should do,” said Orleans.
Orleans said he’s putting himself through the fashion marketing program at Edessa while working as an emergency room technician.
Lynne Dixon-Speller, Edessa’s academic dean, said Orlean’s story is so powerful that it inspired her school to donate all proceeds from its annual calendar to Courage MKE.
Courage MKE is a Milwaukee organization that supports and provides housing to youth in the LGBTQ+ community.
“Jason’s story is so compelling. It’s the epitome of what Courage MKE is about and hopefully what Edessa becomes about. I want Edessa to be more about, if a student is of a different ethnicity than the other students in the room or if a student is of a different gender than the other students in the room, we should all come together and be inclusive,” said Dixon-Speller.
She said Orleans recently did a fashion show for Macy’s where he styled two garments for the show.
Orleans said despite his new career coming late in life, he’s just happy to finally be following his true calling.
“I felt alive, excited. Going back to school was not a burden for me, it was a passion,” said Orleans.
It’s a passion Orleans said he plans to use to help others be the best versions of themselves.