Series:

Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness

Topic:

Social Movements

Environmental Illness

Biographical Note:

Interviewed for the UCLA Center for the Study of Women’s Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness series. Lives with Lyme Disease. Storyteller. Gender non-conforming. Narrates experiences of chemical exposure and illness from the perspective of genetics.

Interviewer:

Yiu, Wei Si Nic

Interviewee:

Humphrey, Ray

Persons Present:

Humphrey and Yiu

Place Conducted:

The interview was conducted using the Zoom video conferencing platform.

Supporting Documents:

Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Library’s Center for Oral History Research.

Interviewer Background and Preparation:

This interview was conducted by Wei Si Nic Yiu, a graduate student researcher, for the Center for the Study of Women; PhD student in Gender Studies, UCLA. Yiu’s dissertation focuses on queerness and archives of Asia.

Processing of Interview:

The interviewer prepared for the interview by reading Lydia Savage’s "Justice for Janitors in Los Angeles" and various archival articles from the Los Angeles Times, as well as a pre-interview questionnaire completed by the narrator.

Length:

2.25 hrs

Language:

English

Copyright:

Regents of the University of California, UCLA Library.

Audio:

Series Statement:

Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness is a collection of interviews with over seventy individuals living in the U.S. and Canada whose family history, occupation, art practice, or activism have brought them into direct contact with illness experience and disability related to chronic, low-dose exposure to toxicant chemicals. The procurement of this collection (from March 2019 through September 2020) was sponsored by the UCLA Center for the Study of Women under the directorship of Rachel C. Lee, with interviews conducted by six undergraduates, five graduate students, two career staff, and two faculty members at CSW.

Note:

Under Legal Agreement, please delete file size 596404 as it is not countersigned.

Discussion of COVID-19 pandemic stay-at-home order--Introduction to upbringing in St. Louis, early sensory problems, and initial irritation to chemicals--Father’s Agent Orange exposure and Veteran’s advocacy with their father--Lyme diagnosis and migraines--Difficulty with health care system and changing insurance policies--Activist work and career as a trauma counselor/psychotherapist--Difficulty and absence of leave in career due to Lyme’s and environmental illness--Wrap up

Self-advocacy within the health care system--Making household products without toxicants--Discussion of mental health care and support resources--Relationship with family in relation to illness--Further discussion of Agent Orange and genetic predispositions that may have led to its impact--Hobbies and creative outlets in advocacy work and social life--Psychotherapy work and new methods of trauma care--Toxic mold exposure in Portland, Oregon--Receiving or not receiving accommodation at work and transition to own practice--Activism and community work as an organizer--Creative outlets and rituals used in self-care--Societal changes needed to live with chemical illness