Searainya Bond-Frojen Oral History Interview, May 19, 2017

In the interview, Bond-Frojen describes her atypical childhood in Florence, Oregon, under the care of an extremely progressive, politically active mother. Bond-Frojen explains that drugs and alcohol were prevalent in her early life, due to her “pot smoking” parents, and her father’s struggles with alcoholism. Although she describes her mother as a good parent, she also recognizes that drugs and alcohol sometimes interfered with consistency in her upbringing. In Bond-Frojen’s youth, she was heavily involved in the Evangelical Christian church and was extremely passionate about music—participating in both her school’s drumline, marching band, and jazz band. Bond-Frojen shares that religion and spirituality have played a large role throughout her life, and she forged many meaningful relationships with mentors through the church as a young person. Bond-Frojen did not identify as lesbian throughout most of her youth, and so experienced no conflict between her sexual identity and religious beliefs. Although LGBTQ+ issues were not discussed in her K-12 schools, Bond-Frojen recalls her mother using terms like “lesbian” and “gay,” and giving her the classic book Our Bodies, Ourselves to help her explore her sexuality. Bond-Frojen’s mother even told her that she knew Bond-Frojen was a lesbian and that she was supportive of it—even though Bond-Frojen herself was offended at the time, given that she did not yet identify as such.

Bond-Frojen describes how she continued to express her faith after high school, attending Christian universities for both her undergraduate and graduate education. Bond-Frojen earned her bachelor’s degree in Bible and Christian counseling from Eugene Bible College, after taking a 15-year break from her education. Bond-Frojen details how she spent her time during this break—working with adults with developmental disabilities for five to seven years, and as a receptionist at Portland’s Adventist Medical Center for almost a decade. Following this period, Bond-Frojen pursued a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy from George Fox University from 2006 to 2010, even receiving a student-of-the-year award for her major. Bond-Frojen explains that it was during her time in graduate school that she came to identify as lesbian, though she did not feel safe “coming out” for fear that it would jeopardize her educational opportunities. In the interview, Bond-Frojen also describes the inner turmoil she faced when her spiritual and religious beliefs came in conflict with her sexual identity.

After much reflection, and while working as a mental health counselor following her academic career, Bond-Frojen found a way to reconcile this conflict. In the second half of the interview, Bond-Frojen describes her relationship with her wife Robin Frojen, whom she met online through the dating website OkCupid. This portion of the interview includes a lengthy discussion of Searainya and Robin’s relationship, including how it has evolved over time. In addition, Bond-Frojen briefly speaks about how the marriage equality act affected them as a couple.