NAME ●●● Kurt Elias Hummel
FROM ●●● Cotton Plant, Arkansas
SEXUALITY ●●● Homosexual/Homoromantic
STUDENT ●●● College Masters; Fashion Design, Marketing & Brand Strategies
FULL TIME JOB ●●● Performer at Ivory Regional Theatre/Owner & Designer at Songbird Designs
Growing up with a mother who always supported him no matter what only allowed Kurt’s already eccentric personality to flourish from a very young age. People didn’t exactly understand a little boy’s desire to take gymnastics and ballet, but Kurt absolutely adored those classes; he didn’t even care if they had to travel out of town for him to go to his classes every week.
He was only eight years old when his mother passed away, and losing shook his eight year old self to the core. He was no longer the vibrant little boy who loved dance and Broadway and singing; in fact, he didn’t speak for almost two months after she passed away. His father noticed right away and tried to get him to open up, even going so far as to send him to a therapist, but nothing worked; the way his mind had processed it, if no one could ever hear his mother’s beautiful voice again, then they’d never hear his again. It wasn’t until after a genuine, deep talk with his father - at least, as deep as you could get with an eight year old - that Kurt slowly started returning to his old self. He started going back to his dance classes, back to his vocal lessons, returned to his Broadway and Vogue obsessions.
Despite the fact that Kurt didn’t actually come out of the closet until the end of his Freshman year in high school, Kurt always dealt with bullying in his younger years in one form or another. Whether it was students making fun of his eccentric personality or his passion for fashion and theatre, kids always seemed to make fun of him. He had a few friends here and there, but none of them ever seemed to stick around for long. In high school, especially once he’d come out of the closet, the bullying seemed to intensify. There were times he considered asking his father to let him switch schools, but the only school he thought might help him get away from the bullies was far too expensive, especially for a kid from Cotton Plant. Despite intense bullying that left him with numerous bruises he would rush to make excuses for and quite a few scars in the long run, somehow he managed to survive high school in one - albeit slightly fractured - piece. He had always loved himself for who he was, despite the way others might have seen him; his mother’s voice in his mind had been the one constant reminder that there was nothing wrong with who he was.
College had been a time of sexual awakening for Kurt. Living in Lima for the entirety of his life up until that point, he’d never had a boyfriend back home. Sure, he found ways to pleasure himself it the dark comfort of his own bedroom, but he’d never experienced anything truly sexual with another person. It wasn’t until after going out to a club with one of his friends from class a few months after he’d gotten to the city that Kurt had actually gotten a taste of his first sexual encounter. He never saw the guy again, at least he doesn’t think (though in truth he can’t remember a whole lot about the night beyond the pleasure he felt), but the encounter had woken up something inside of Kurt he’d never known was there. He had discovered just how amazing sex was. Despite how enjoyable he’d found having sex to be, though, Kurt was still a romantic at heart. He believed in love and soul mates and everything that one would imagine came with romance. It had only taken one bad boyfriend to tarnish his outlook on that, and another two or three after that to completely destroy his optimistic outlook and faith in the idea of love - or at the very least, his idea that he would ever find honest and true love. One had been extremely abusive, another had stolen from him, another had used him to get to one of his co-workers, and the last ended when Kurt walked in on his boyfriend with his best friend in the city.
[ ABUSE TW] Kurt’s experience with relationships over the years he lived in New York left him with a reluctance to date again. While his exes were all bad in their own way, one in particular left a lasting remark on Kurt and his subconscious. Kurt met his first boyfriend, Tristan, while living in New York City; he was a few years older than Kurt and absolutely gorgeous. He hadn’t judged Kurt for the fact that he wasn’t sexually experienced or for the fact that his first time had been with some random one night stand he’d met in a club. If anything, he seemed intrigued by Kurt’s lack of experience. He had been the first person to introduce Kurt to actual relationships, and it had seemed fine at first, but those around him watched - almost helplessly - as his relationship with the older man spiraled into something dangerous. Tristan would make remarks discouraging Kurt’s passions - theater, fashion - and he’d put Kurt down in subtle ways. He wasn’t thrilled with the fact that Kurt was living on campus. He didn’t like whenever Kurt went out with his friends and didn’t bring him along; honestly, he didn’t like when Kurt did anything without him. After a few months, he’d even convinced Kurt to move off of campus and into an apartment with him. Without really noticing it, Tristan became controlling in every aspect of Kurt’s life, and for a time he was perfectly content with that; he was in love, he didn’t notice; or at the very least, he didn’t want to. The night that Kurt went out clubbing with some of his college friends instead of staying home like Tristan had wanted, though, was the first night Kurt started to realize their relationship wasn’t like everyone elses; it was the first time Tristan actually hit him - outside the bedroom, at least. Sure, their relationship hadn’t been like the ones in the movies he’d seen, but he had thought it was still normal enough. He would always remind himself that life wasn’t like the movies. Until that night. Tristan apologized and promised that it would never happen again. And it didn’t - not for a few days at least. It happened again after Kurt contradicted something Tristan had said. And again after Kurt refused to quit his job simply because Kurt was starting to form friendships with other guys. He’d never left any marks that were visible, or at least nothing that couldn’t be covered with carefully placed concealer, but he’d always made the impact that had been intended. After Tristan convinced Kurt’s boss that he had quit, that had been the final straw for him. With a little encouragement from his friends, Kurt was no longer content to let Tristan control his entire life. The only problem was trying to get out of the relationship without landing himself in the hospital. He made a plan with some of his friends to get his stuff and get out while Tristan was at work, but of course that had gone wrong. Kurt’s friends had taken some of his boxes downstairs, leaving Kurt alone in the apartment when Tristan had come home early. A fight ensued, and in the end Kurt was left with a fractured eye socket, three broken ribs, and his freedom.
Two months after Kurt graduated from college with two Bachelor’s degrees - one in Fashion, the other in Theatre & Film - Kurt ran out of money; even the two jobs he had weren’t enough to help support him in a city that big. He had degrees in fields that should have provided him easy access to jobs, but it never happened. He wasn’t sure what he was doing wrong, but soon enough he returned home with his proverbial tail between his legs. In a town like Cotton Plant, with the money he had left from his life in New York, he’s easily able to afford his own place and quickly got himself a job at a theatre in Brinkley designing costumes; it wasn’t something he had imagined himself doing, but it gave him a chance to gain experience in the design field as well as a chance to see free productions whenever he wanted. That was good enough for him.
With a little encouragement from his father, Kurt decided to go back to graduate school and earn his Masters Degree - hoping that it will help make his resume more appealing in the future.
Kurt has an intense appreciation for literature, and even though he hasn’t had a great experience when it comes to romance, he’s still a romantic at heart; he loves anything with a good love story. He’s a bigger fan of the classic novels, but there are a few modern novels that he likes, including the dystopian novels that are becoming popular. He’s also a very large Harry Potter fan.
He’s fluent in French, the language of love (no surprise there), and he desperately wants to visit France at some point in his life. He’s also a rather large Anglophile; he visited London once during a study abroad and absolutely fell in love with the culture.
