2016 was a changing point in Mike’s life. Unfortunately, Mike was in a terrible roadside bicycle accident en route to his first Pride Parade in Portland, Oregon. According to his medical team, had Mike been wearing a helmet, he would not have ended up in a 9 day and nearly dying. It took several months for a full recovery. This incident was a pivotal point in Mike’s life. He became vigilant about biking safety and an ardent ADA advocate.

  After Mike had physically recovered, he returned to the workforce. Shockingly, he was wrongly terminated when his employers required him to walk his bike up a flight of stairs. This was a physically impossible for him. Ultimately, a legal course ensued. Mike was able to fight the decision of his former employer. He successfully settled with this multi-national corporation for an equitable solution.

  Mike has had very unique life experiences. All of this based on the fact that Mike was born without arms in Russia as a result of the negative environmental impact from the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe in 1986. Mike endured violence, oppression, homophobic abuse and neglect at the hands of his extremist American adopted family, so he utilized the State’s social services to help him find liberation and support. His resilience was emboldened as a child because he rejected extremist views including forced homosexual conversion therapy.

  Despite being a high school drop-out and a troubled internationally-adopted teen, Mike persevered and earned his G.E.D. He then furthered his higher education by attaining his associate’s degree at a community college, then onto the private Catholic Duquesne University in Pennsylvania. Mike’s Bachelors Degree in Political Science, with Minor in Psychology, has prepared him to navigate the complexities of being a queer physically-disabled man in an often unjust world.