Everyone has some sort of responsibility with his or her job.
However, Raphael Ferreira is responsible for the information of thousands of individuals as a database administrator at Governors State University in University Park, Ill. (the preparation and commuting which take up to four hours of Ferreira's day if he takes the train).
"If someone gets hired or fired, that information has to get stored in a database," Ferreira said. "When a student registers, that has to [go somewhere]." When asked if he has access to information about everyone, he answered, "It is a highly classified job. You pretty much have to swear your life away."
Ferreira detailed a recent situation where his expertise was needed: "It was graduation time, and on a Friday. (It's always on a Friday, it seems.) There's an urgent request from the president because there's a graduation and they [needed to check] who to give the honors to. So, you need the grade-point averages [GPAs]—which are calculated on the fly. What I had to do was go into the system and reverse-engineer it so it would calculate GPAs and produce a list for them." He added with a laugh, "That's the kind of situation where you say, 'Let's see how this goes.'"
Ferreira was born in Brazil. When he was 27, he received an offer to come to the United States to work as a translator, and ending up staying in Naples, Fla., for several years. He later resided in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Miami before relocating to Chicago, living in Hyde Park before moving to the Near East Side, near Navy Pier. "When I saw this view, I said, 'Wow, awesome," he added.
Regarding coming out, Ferreira initially joked, "Do you have five days?" The first person he came out to was a friend of his in Brazil who was a teacher. (Ferreira was an instructor as well.) "She was kind of falling in love with me and I told her it wasn't going to happen," he said. They remain friends to this day.
The ensuing discussion revealed a man with various interests, including spiritism and the upcoming International Mr. Leather (IML)—the latter which makes sense since his partner won Mr. Chicago Leather last year. He also revealed that he has 46 cousins on his father's side alone. Also, when told that someone said that Brazilians are bisexual, Ferreira immediately corrected, "No—everybody is very sexual in Brazil."
Ferreira is also passionate about the subject of marriage equality. "If I had gay marriage, it's possible I would've gotten my citizenship much earlier," he said, while citing the many other benefits same-sex marriage would confer.
THE STATS
Age: 40
Relationship status: Partnered for four years with Angel Velez, Mr. Chicago Leather 2012
Neighborhood: Near East Side
Homeland: Brazil
Favorite snack: Pao de queijo (baked, cheese-flavored rolls)
Favorite TV show: Star Trek
