Story #143

When I came out, it was the mid ’80s and I was watching men having to tell their parents that A. they were gay and B. they had this horrible disease that will probably kill them all in the same breath. I wasn’t ready to be totally out, so I wrote them a letter saying that I was gay and healthy and just wanted them to know. They never spoke of it for oh, maybe 5 or 6 years. But they always knew. And although not always cool about it, they didn’t ostracize me for it.