Age: 43
Hometown: Dietzenbach, Germany
How you identify: Bisexual
What’s your sign: Libra
Lu is one of those people in the community who needs no introduction. She’s a former president of the MBA and has been a successful LGBTQ business owner in Orlando for many years.
“I’ve been doing bodywork for 20 years,” she says. “I started building Balance Orlando about 10 years ago. That’s my core business. I sometimes call myself a lapsed naturopath because my license in Germany says naturopathic physician. It’s sort of similar to a chiropractor [in the U.S.].”
Lu grew up in a very progressive household in a liberal town in Germany, and received quite a culture shock when she first came to the U.S.
“I saw the poverty, racism and this strange gender role play that was surprising to me,” she says. “People aren’t that hyper-heterosexual in Europe. When I came here I saw people trying to squeeze themselves into these molds of what it means to be a man or what it means to be a woman. It’s not like that in Germany at all.”
Lu sees gender as something secondary when looking for someone to date and spend time with.
“To me it is all the same. I don’t really see gender as something that is only divided into two categories. It is the individual person that I’m seeing,” she says. “I like diversity and individuality.”
Something Lu takes very seriously, not only in relationships, but in every aspect of her life is being candid and truthful.
“I’m almost obsessively honest. People always come to me for the honest answer. I can’t stand when people are dishonest,” she says.
