Wesley Hamilton, Disabled But Not Really

Featured in Queer Eye S4 E2

Doors open at 7:00pm, Open Seating. For information contact Danielle Mancuso, mancusod@sou.edu.

SOU Students Free  |  SOU and Community Members $5 or donation of 2 non-perishable food items for the Student Food Pantry

Hosted by : EPIC

Thank you to our sponsor Rogue Community College and our partner SOU Disability Resources

A Little about Wes:

Wesley Hamilton was born and raised on the east side of Kansas City, Mo., where it was difficult for a young African American male to find opportunity outside of the streets. By the age of 16, he became too much for his mother to handle (which was a common lifestyle for kids in his neighborhood) and moved out to be on his own. By the age of 22, he became a father to his daughter, Nevaeh. 

Two years later, at only 5-foot-4 and 230-pounds, Wes was non-athletic and vastly overweight as a single father, working full time at an auto finance company and had just won sole custody of his then 2-year-old daughter. But only 5 days after his 24th birthday (January of 2012), everything about Wes’s life changed dramatically. As he was walking back to his car, Wes was shot multiple times, with one bullet slicing through his chest and fracturing a rib. The other entered his abdomen, partially severing his spine and paralyzing him below the waist. The shooter was a guy he’d never met. 

Wes spent the next three years in recovery, which also included two of those years fighting the severe emotional depression that arose from his belief that his life would forever be bedeviled by medications, surgeries and limitations.

He is a speaker not to be missed!