It’s something you see other people doing all the time.  It’s something movies are made about.  It’s something society has expectations for everyone to do, except it’s not legal for everyone in every country.  It’s something people put a lot of time and effort into.  It’s something that brings families together.  It’s something that can cost a lot of money.  It’s something people do for love, or connections, or money, or power or all of the above.  And it’s something I NEVER thought I’d do!

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When Dorothy says in The Wizard of Oz, “There’s no place like home.” She wasn’t kidding. After so many years in Southern California and being so far away from my family and old acquaintances, it was great to be home in Toronto!

Now that I was back, I wasted no time. My second day home, I knocked on PROUD FM’s door and announced that I was in town. Shaun Proulx, who had interviewed me via the phone from L.A., seized the opportunity to do a live tete a tete in the studio. I mentioned off the air that I was back in town and looking to get into radio. (Here’s a tip for anyone aspiring to do anything.. offer to work for free!)

I started off interning for The Shaun Proulx Show, when luck of all luck the receptionist quit. (No, I did not push her down a flight of stairs! It was through an open window!)

I was in, if only as a receptionist. But when you’re eager, willing and patient, opportunities arise. Before I knew it I was hosting Saturday afternoons. Then, I was bumped up to Mid-days!

Interviewing Colt Models in the PROUD FM studio

Co-Hosting PROUD FM's 2nd Bday bash

Ready to host the Toronto Pride stage

While my radio career was taking off, I also took the opportunity to pitch a reality show idea I had while living in L.A..  A porn star reality show, where I’m the host, and potential porn stars compete against each other to become the next big porn name!

OUTtv loved the idea! We begin filming in the fall.

During this time, and in the background, Shaun and I were getting closer… and closer… and closer, until one fateful night at Circa nightclub the spark burst into a flame and our romance began.

A pre-pride parade kiss

Being two visible gay media types, we were approached by Canada’s National Gay magazine, OUTLOOKS, to do an article. In it, we appear together and the interview is very candid about both our pasts.

Slowly, the gap between Eddie Stone porn star and Patrick Marano radio host was closing. OUTtv was advertising on PROUD FM. Eddie Stone fans were listening to Patrick on the radio and the OUTLOOKS interview brought both identities out into the open.

I hadn’t left Eddie Stone in L.A., he is a part of me, he is my creation and he will continue to live on in my website and my reality show.

Eddie and Patrick were going mainstream together and it was time to tell mom.

Everything was in order. Shaun was doing the PWA Friends For Life Bike Rally from Toronto to Montreal. I was meeting him in Montreal. That would be the perfect time to tell her…. face to face!

“When mom comes to visit you next week, what are you going to tell her you do?” asked my brother on the other end of the line from Montreal. I skirted the subject by making a joke, but wondered how much my brother had figured out on his own.

I was just back from Italy. We had shot “When In Rome”, and my pockets were flush with cash.

Mom’s visit to L.A. went off without a hitch. “How’s the bar?” she’d ask. I told her I was bar backing and go go dancing at a couple of bars in West Hollywood. What? Don’t give me that look, it’s not so far off the truth! That’s how I got discovered by Chi Chi LaRue, while go go dancing at Micky’s!

With Chi Chi LaRue & Johnny Hazzard

Anyway, she left L.A. happy in the knowledge that I was doing alright for myself, if not totally aware of how I was achieving it.

And doing well for myself I did. I continued on as a Rascal Exclusive for Chi Chi, traveling Europe and the United States, picking up awards and nominations all over the place, modeling for Tom Ford, T.V. interviews, books, magazines and even my own dildo!

Promoting 'Stone Fox'

Now what? I had a decision to make. Years had gone by, and I had achieved more than what most porn stars ever do. I needed to continue to grow, and the only way to do that was by moving home to Canada.

I wasn’t abandoning the industry, but I needed a shift in my life. I had done a radio interview as Eddie Stone with Shaun Proulx of The Shaun Proulx Show on 103.9 PROUD FM in Toronto. PROUD FM is the world’s first and only queer commercial radio station. People have always told me I had a voice for radio, so I decided to move to Toronto and look up PROUD FM to see what could come of it.

I thought that the move away from L.A. and the pursuit of other avenues, like radio, would end the eternal questioning of “Are you going to tell your mom?”

I would never have guessed that a move home would force me to face and answer that question once and for all!

If you had asked me what my perfect Pride would consist of, never would I have been able to come up with a scenario that would come close the the perfect Pride weekend I just had!

It was the right combo of work and play.  First off the weather was flawless Saturday afternoon on the corner of Church & Wellesley.

Then what to my wondering eye should appear, but Toronto’s FIRST Trans March!  Hundreds strong they march down Church St. to thunderous applause.  (Trans is the new Gay!)

After a butt load of beer and a good night rest, I was ready to host The Pride & Remembrance Run.  Held ever year during Pride this year the beneficiaries were Casey House & Black Cap.

Which was a huge success!! 

Time to get ready to host the Saturday night main stage with Deborah Cox… did you think I wouldn’t have a ‘look’?

The next day started with rain, but exactly at 2pm, when the parade started, the sky cleared (that’s cuz God loves his gays).   One mother along the parade route held a sign I loved.  Her feelings of devotion and love for her son surpassed all others!   Perched on the back of the VW convertible we led the PROUD FM float which followed behind with a rainbow arc of coloured ballons down Yonge St. and passed 1 million+ onlookers!

Of course, the best part of the weekend, was that I got to spend it with Shaun!