Martin's Bio

Martin Storm was born Martin Thomas Gerard Rooney in Dublin, Ireland on September 25^th 1960, @ 9.45pm local time, a Sunday child, the eldest of 5 children to Tommy and Marie Rooney

He was raised in a town called Raheny, attended Catholic School. At age 4 his mother put him into Irish Dancing Classes, and he loved the stage and even more winning. He won many Irish Dancing competitions over the years, left dancing at age 16 and then returned at age 21 to represent Ireland in a Celtic festival on the west coast of France in 1981.

At age 8 his father introduced him to sailing, which became his passion for the next 18 years. 

He learned to sail, took lifesaving courses and went from racing 8’ dinghies to racing 40’ yachts off the Irish Coast.

After graduating school he took a job as a life assurance clerk in the largest Life Assurance Company in the British Isles, Irish Life. There he captained a 10 pin bowling team to the in house championships 3 years in a row. He also took an interest in live theatre and was part of the companies team in a national inter company competition knows as Top of the Town. The team made it to the quarter finals one year and the show was broadcast live on Irish National television. In that time he auditioned for “The Boyfriend” and won the lead role which played for a 7 day run to great critical and audience reviews. He also performed on radio – singing and tap dancing on a national radio broadcast – the tap dancing being a first for radio back then.

 He traveled a lot to the UK and France during his teenage years, and once he got the travel bug he knew he was destined to leave Ireland. Being gay in Ireland in the 80’s and 90’s was not easy, Ireland being a Catholic country with laws that were defensive of the Catholic Church and its teachings. Once he “came out”, life was very difficult.

In 1980/81 he went on the life changing vacation for 6 weeks to the US, Canada and the Caribbean. Upon  his return he could not get the idea out of his head that he wanted to live in N America.

In 1995 he took another vacation to Vancouver and LA. Upon his return he was destined to move to N America. Ireland in the 80’s had an unemployment rate of 30% and 3 countries offered to assist with immigration for those interested and qualified. Martin quit his job, moved home (his family now lived in Skerries, a fishing village 20 miles north of Dublin City), and learned how to bartend in 2 local pubs.

In the meantime he had applied to the Canadian Embassy to start the immigration process. In 1985 he was successfully accepted as a legal immigrant to Canada, and on Dec 30^th 1986 got on a flight and moved to Vancouver, BC.

Once in Vancouver he was finally free to live his life as he wanted. He started work within 6 weeks of his arrival.

 As any curious gay man in new to N America, Martin discovered a plethora of different types within the gay community – Leather, Bears, Drag to name a few. He frequented the clubs and began to meet people, some just for sex, others became good friends. He went out to a local club one night during the new Emperor and Empress Campaign – no idea what this was all about, but found it fascinating none the less. Once he learned more about it, it became a desire to find out all he could about these “titles”.

THE ENTERTAINER WAS BORN

Martin then started to attend the drag shows, which back then, were quite amazing with a lot of talent on the stages, impersonations of well known actresses and singers being done by “men”. He had seen Danny La Rue in concert, one of the only female impersonators in Ireland. This was different as these were guys around his own age, and impersonating people he was aware of and became very fond of.

Now he showed up at Buddy’s a local bar that hosted “Queen for the Day” – where people who had never done drag we drawn by raffle and the Hostess, the incomparable Myria Le Noir then took on the role of preparing and rehearsing the winner to perform 2 numbers in the next weeks show. Martin did it, enjoyed it, but felt that “drag” was not for him, as he did not feel comfortable in that role.

So he stayed with his interest, and learned about the court, the titles and looked up to his idols and took in all he could like a sponge.

At this point Martin decided to run for the King of Hearts title, lost and ran again the next 2 years and also lost. He could not figure out why, but that became clear years later.

All while continuing to do shows and participate in the fundraising, Martin decided he would do what it took to gain a title so he could go out and show them what he was made of.

During this time, fate intervened, and Martin met the then Mr. Vancouver Leather, Dean Ryane. After a fantastic courtship, they became partners and were together for 8 years. Dean began to influence Martin’s Life. He assisted Martin in entering a leather contest in Tacoma. Martin was runner up, and 5 months in the winner resigned and Martin took the title.

Continuing doing fundraisers throughout the Pacific Northwest, Martin had a goal to unite the leather and drag community and have them put their differences aside to better the community in general.

The year was successful and Martin got a taste of title and wanted more. It seemed the only thing now missing was the support of the Vancouver Community, and their acceptance of him. The following year, in 1991, Martin decided to run for Mr. Gay Vancouver and won with a resounding vote along with his Ms Gay, Zola.

Throughout this year Martin traveled extensively throughout the gay circuit, and attended many Coronation Ball weekends, making friends with many Monarchs.  While in Boise, he met Jose Saria, aka Empress 1 Jose, the Widow Norton – Founder of the International Court System. Jose fascinated him with her friendship and a real friendship was born with a lot of mutual respect. Little did Martin know that that meeting was to change his life forever.

 Martin and Dean finally broke up after 8 years and Dean’s Reign as Empress 22 Dusty Ryane of Vancouver, BC during which they traveled the Court Circuit and became very well known. Martin had tried unsuccessfully twice to become Emperor 22 & 23 of Vancouver during that era.

In 1995, fate again stepped in, and Martin's life was changed for the better.  This was the time that he met his current partner Rob Loewen.  Both men fell head over heels for one another.  In March of 1996 they made the decision to moved in together. They then moved to Surrey to be closer to Rob's work, and have lived there ever since. When they moved out of New Westminster, and to Surrey, Martin felt out of the “loop”. Feeling that he had given up everything about the downtown ghetto scene and truly felt lost.  Although he had a fantastic partner, a beautiful house and a dog, something was missing.

He joined the 10 pin Royal Bowling League in New Westminster so he could reconnect with gays in the area. He ran into to lesbians he knew – Linda and Dar, who were part of the running of the league.

Once they realized they knew each other and their past history came up, they asked Martin if he would be interested in putting on GLBTQ dances in Surrey, as there were many GLBTQ people living out here.

Martin gave in after 3 months and on January 7^th 1997 OIS (Out in Surrey) was born in the dining room of Martin and Rob home. The date of Feb. 14^th was decided as the date to hold the first dance. The venue selected was a Greek Church on 160^th Street and 82^nd Ave, as it had a capacity of 160 people, and suited there needs perfectly. The problem then became, how to promote it. So it was decided to hold it as a “benefit for the Bigots Banned Books Defense Fund”.  This fund was created because at the time the Surrey School Board had banned 3 “gay” themed books from the Grade 1 curriculum. The local newspaper was approached and they did an article on the fact that the first Gay Dance was taking place in Surrey. With over 200 people in attendance and representation from the Government of Canada, MP Hedy Fry,  the Provincial Government, Penny Priddy’s Office and MLA Joan Smallwood, history was made. This dance was a resounding success and raised over $1400 for the Defense Fund Campaign.

The dances continued for 5 years on almost a monthly basis in various local halls.

In 1999, ted northe, the then Empress of Canada, gave OIS the gift of the Principality of Surrey/Delta, crowning Martin Rooney as it’s Head of State for life. They then had their First Pride Day, our first Gay Pageant, and the community began to grow and Surrey became known in BC, Canada and the United States. In 2000 the OIS Rainbow Cultural Society was formed, to protect the fundraising and to have community input for the future of Gay Surrey.

Following the election of the 2^nd Mr & Ms Gay Surrey, it was decided to apply for a “Court”. In short Surrey/Delta was offered a Barony under the protection of the Imperial Sovereign Court of Seattle, The Olympic and Rainier Empire. They needed to put in 3 years to finally obtain “sovereign” status and elect an Emperor and Empress. With a lot of work and fighting with other courts and themselves they finally did the work required of them and were granted Court Status in May 2004. The first Emperor and Empress were elected in October 2004 – Their Most Imperial Sovereign Majesties, Absolute Peace Emperor and Arch Empress 1,Martin and Taylor Mayd Storm.

Martin has entertained on the Court circuit for the last 20 years and has been requested to sing the National Anthems at Coronation Balls throughout Canada and The United States.

November of 2006, Martin was instrumental in assisting the set up and production of The Luv Show, Surrey's first monthly "Ol' Style Drag Show" featuring Amanda Luv and Mz. Adrien. He became producer of this very successful venture. Stormy Luv Productions split in April 2007 and the Luv Show continues it's successful run.
Martin is once again looking for other ideas to serve his community and he can be contacted at martin@martinstorm.com.
His Production company owns a full sound system that is available for rental and all inquiries should be forwarded to stormyproductions@shaw.ca

This past year - November 11th 2007 Martin was refused entry to the U.S. due to his being HIV positive. Martin decided that this was a total invasion of his human rights and led the fight to get the travel ban removed. He has now dedicated his life to HIV/AIDS Awareness and fundraising for those less fortunate than him and with a goal to a generation without HIV/AIDS.

Martin was honored on September 27th 2008 by receiving the Queen Mother of the Americas Imperial Order of the Double Eagle - the highest honor that can be awarded by the International Court System.

Martin was the 1st recipient of this prestigious honor