Philip Reeves

Point Scholar: 2007-2009

University of Buffalo
B.A., English

When Philip came out to his fundamentalist, Christian parents in North Dakota, they gave him an ultimatum: leave the family without support or change his sexuality. Choosing to leave, the void left in his life was soon filled by Tony Reeves, an openly gay man from the community, who gave shelter to Philip and they soon developed a father-son bond. They faced heavy opposition from the community with accusations that Tony had "turned" Philip gay feeding off the fear that LGBT people are after the nation's children.  The little anonymity they had in their North Dakotan town disappeared and the attention resulted in Tony's decision to change careers. With no job and no reason to stay, they decided to move to Buffalo, NY where Philip majored in English at the University at Buffalo and Tony attended law school.  Philip graduated magna cum laude and achieved the College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding English Senior Award, and the English Department's George Knight Houpt Prize, awarded to one graduating senior for excellence in writing and overall studies.  Philip wrote an Honors Thesis on autobiography including a study of his own history and the sociological problems confronting LGBT people both in their lives and as readers.  For this thesis Philip was awarded his Phi Betta Kappa chapter's Hildegarde F. Shinners Memorial Prize for "a critical treatment of a significant problem, theory, book, poem, or other appropriate topic."  Along with his curricular achievements, Philip contributed his story to Kicked Out (October 2009), an anthology about LGBT homelessness and the coming out and being kicked out struggle.
Philip will attend law school at Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland in the fall and his now father, Tony Reeves, will be moving to Washington, D.C. to pursue a career in law.