A coffee with… Jean-Sébastien Fallu | Coming out of the closet to fight stigma

No more hiding places. A few years ago, Jean-Sébastien Fallu, professor at the School of Psychoeducation at the University of Montreal, unpacked his bag. He uses drugs. He’s already sold some. He was a sex worker. And he’s polyamorous.

“You have to believe that a coming out bring another! laughs Professor Fallu, who receives me in the interior courtyard of the Marie-Victorin pavilion at the University of Montreal, on a beautiful fall day.

This self-disclosure is not intended to shock right-thinking people. Rather, Jean-Sébastien Fallu wants to make his contribution to combat the prejudices that still surround drugs and certain sexual practices.

By listening to him, we understand that his approach is thoughtful. And matured for a long time.

April 2019. Jean-Sébastien Fallu is in Porto, Portugal, for an international conference on harm reduction related to drug use. Carl Hart, then head of the Department of Psychology at Columbia University, delivers the closing address. Mr. Hart, in addition to being a world authority, is publicly displayed as a heroin user.

“He told everyone: come out of the closet! He gave us an order. He told us that until we did that, it wouldn’t change. It challenged me. It sowed something in me, ”says Mr. Fallu.

But the university professor, by his own admission, was “not ready”.

His moment came a few months later, during the Symposium of the Network on Addiction and Substance Use. For two days, the researcher takes part in workshops. It deplores the fact that the drug overdose crisis does not receive the attention it needs. That the organizations involved are poorly funded. Mentalities don’t change.

Jean-Sébastien Fallu is in charge of delivering the closing conference. He decides to jump. He reveals that he sometimes uses drugs and has already sold them. He continues with his experience as a former sex worker. And declares himself non-monogamous polyamorous.

These revelations are greeted with a standing ovation. A young man comes to tell him how much his declarations have done him good.

“I said to myself: I did the right thing”, says Jean-Sébastien Fallu, who starts again the next day on social networks.

A privileged situation

“I’m not looking to be a model, I don’t want to glorify drug use, insists Jean-Sébastien Fallu. I simply want to help widen the blinders we have on certain issues. »

“I’m doing it because I’m a privileged white college professor who can’t get kicked out — at least I haven’t had any problems yet!” he continues. I am aware that a policeman, a politician, a judge, a lawyer, a journalist could jeopardize his career doing that. »

Such revelations arouse curiosity, and Jean-Sébastien Fallu responds to questions with naturalness.

Besides alcohol, he still uses cannabis, although in smaller quantities than before. He also occasionally uses psychedelic drugs like ecstasy, LSD, 2-CB or magic mushrooms.

He started selling jar and hash in adolescence for strictly practical reasons.

“My friends were buying jar at $15 per gram. I had cash from a summer job so I bought an ounce to make it cheaper,” he explains.

“I did that for three or four years until I said: yeah. I’m going to drug addiction at university, I work in a youth center, I would have to find another way to make easy money, ”he continues.

The solution that comes to mind: sell his body. This is not a joke. As he is “a lot more straight than anything else”, he first thinks of offering his services to women, but realizes that there is no market for that. He then turns to men.

He works in a “luxury” agency where the rules are clear – no penetration, in particular. Does he find the experience degrading? “Pantoute”, he replies, affirming that he has no consequences.

“I had plans for university studies, I wanted to go to GRIP [Groupe de recherche et d’intervention psychosociale, un organisme qui existe toujours]. I wanted easy money to change the world,” he explains.

He is well aware that his experience is not representative of that of all sex workers.

Similarly, he avoids speaking on behalf of people who have drug use disorders, since he does not.

As for his loves, Jean-Sébastien Fallu has a blonde who herself has a husband and children. All these beautiful people know each other and rub shoulders. The university professor, himself the father of two children, has two more lovers.

There you go, you know everything.

“When you reveal yourself like that, others also tend to open up. And those who don’t like it leave, so it’s a natural selection! “says Mr. Fallu.

“There is just one Jean-Sébastien Fallu,” he said. In every sense of the term. On the planet, there is just one. And the teacher, the boyfriend, friend, it’s the same. In my personal life and in my professional life, I say and think the same things. »