If you don't know what my my pronouns are, you can ask.

If you don't know what my gender identity is, you can ask.

If you don't know what my sexuality is, I encourage you not to ask unless you're trying to, like, get with me.

But you can still ask.

Like, just don't assume things about people, especially people you don't know.

I'm definitely the type of person that's always kind of like gone against the status quo a bit.

And I love that that part of myself has a place here and it's not looked at like a bad thing.

It's just looked at as 'that's just Michael G. That's just Daddy Long.

That's a part of who he is.'

I work at the Golden Saloon, which is located in McCarthy, Alaska.

McCarthy is for people who don't think that life is hard enough, and that's pretty good.

We're in the center of the largest national park in the country.

It's 13 million acres.

So our park, just the park is bigger than 60 or 70 different countries.

The last town you passed before you hit McCarthy Road is Chitina.

Once you pass through Chitina, you get onto to McCarthy Road and then it's just like dirt, rock and gravel.

I mean, I think McCarthy Road is like 60 miles.

In some areas you're like a mountain on both sides.

And then once you get to the actual bridge, we call it the footbridge.

That's when you're like, All right, cool.

We made it to McCarthy.

Like, once you cross the footbridge, then you're like in McCarthy officially, I would say.

It is the last community still inside a national park and we all persevere.

But it's about freedom.

Yeah, I own this part of town and that part.

I've been restoring town for about 22 years or so.

The town at one time was the largest town in Alaska.

So before Anchorage was even a tent city, this was already a pretty thriving place.

And it was the, you know, the copper, the riches of the copper that got everything going.

And this was the quintessential Sin City to the corporate town or company town up in Kennecott.

It was the Wild West and it was a frontier town.

There were hookers and prostitutes and whore houses afoot.

And then there was the bar that everybody would go to for all the debauchery.

It's kind of one of the reasons why I love my job so much as a bartender is because I bring out the debauchery.

All those fun things that I feel like we're a lot crazier back in the day, but I can still bring some of that back here to the bar and to McCarthy in general.

So the first time that I came to Alaska was in 2013, the day that I graduated culinary school.

I left the ceremony and went straight to O'Hare Airport in Chicago and got a flight here to work in Denali National Park and then this job here in McCarthy came up for a serving position.

And I just sent my resume.

And the very next day, Neil reached out to me and was like, 'Hey, I see you're a bartender and a pastry chef.

I have two positions for that.

Would you like to like create like this and dual role and kind of do both?'

and I'm just like, well yeah, that's like that's my whole shtick.

I love doing bartending and pastry.

The second or third day that I had been in town and someone that was a part of our team was like pretty much (expletive) talking me, saying this (expletive) needs to go back to Chicago.

And like I was like, that's like that's like three days in, you know?

And I mean, and so that hit me pretty heavy.

And I'm the type of person that I don't take (expletive) from people.

So I instantly called him out on it.

And with my company having my back, they were like, yeah, that's not the type of things that we tolerate here.

So he was gone.

And so though it was a very unfortunate situation, seeing how quick they were to have my back, it made me feel more comfortable.

(Singing) Evil is a relay sport when the one who's burned turns to pass the torch.

So open mic is every Thursday.

(Singing) He would sing the blues.

It's something that I look forward to absolutely every single week.

We are taught to be wary of bears and mindful of moose.

But nothing prepares you for the real predators who attack fangs exposed.

The comments on what I'm wearing or not, and assumptions on how I am feeling.

Any being that allows me to share a piece of myself, whether it be through food or through through drinks or through writing, that's something that I cherish.

And I feel like in this town there are so many people that are about that.

There's always people jamming and there's always people singing, people painting.

For me personally, growing up in the city, like everything is just so fast paced.

It's always like, you know, hi and bye but out here, it's like I get to share creativity and share in an art minded space with people that care about that same type of thing, just expressing themselves in whatever medium that they want to.

One more time, I'm going to give it to you one more time from the top.

I love McCarthy now.

Is it perfect?

Absolutely not.

Do I still face microaggression sometimes?

Yes, absolutely.

But I've learned to pick and choose my battles.

And any time that I'm feeling uncomfortable, if I'm feeling disrespected, it's never a problem for me to address it.

Like though I represent multiple communities, I'm not the face of those communities.

And so that's something that I've had to keep in mind.

It's like, it's not my job to educate anybody.

It's not my job to make anybody more comfortable than I make myself feel comfortable.

But I still do it because there aren't a lot of black people that venture out and travel into national parks.

There aren't a lot of black people that go out and work seasonal jobs in national parks.

And I like to strongly believe that just by me being here years from now, there's going to be more people like me in a town like this.