WHY YOU SHOULD KNOW HIM: Wammes and two friends run G2H2, a happy hour for the gay community. On the third Friday of every month, about 200 to 300 people hit a Cleveland-area bar with most establishments donating a portion of the night's sales to a nonprofit such as the Gay Games. G2H2 stands for Gay Guys Happy Hour, but the organizers use only the acronym now, to be inclusive. This month's happy hour takes place at the Gay Games' festival village at Mall C downtown Aug. 15.
SCENE IT: G2H2 appeals to gays who enjoy the mainstream bar scene, especially those in their 30s and 40s, Wammes says. "What we hear is, they don't necessarily want to go to an exclusively gay bar, because they've got straight friends too that they hang out with."
MATCH MAKER: Wammes, who took over G2H2 with his friends in 2005, hit it off with his partner, restaurant manager T.C. Whysall, at a G2H2 night in 2007. "We had met previously," he says. "He used to be a bartender. We start chatting and hanging out and started going out from there." They were the second couple to sign up for Cleveland's domestic partner registry on the day it debuted in May 2009.
FIGHTING DISCRIMINATION: By day, Wammes is a civil-rights investigator fighting discrimination in schools for the U.S. Education Department. Courts are starting to reinterpret Title IX, the federal ban on gender stereotyping and sex discrimination in education. "I enjoy working in investigating discrimination and ensuring that students are getting their equal access to education," he says, "so any student who's having an issue, you feel good that you're able to help them."
