As far as I know, there is only one gay man on my side of our family. Wringing my brain doesn’t bring forth any more. It’s PRIDE time of year again, and I cheer on one grandson.
Near his home are: https://www.gaypinkspots.com/event
San Diego always does things a little sideways. In San Francisco PRIDE is today. The PRIDE festival here will be July 9 through the 17th.
A job was offered to me when I was at my bottom by my friend Harry. I found myself housesitting an old Victorian downtown…in the middle of a gay neighborhood. I didn’t know what gay was. Today all those gay and straight friends have died. I find many of them on panels in the AIDS Quilt. Those that didn’t die of AIDS, are framed forever in my memory.
My husband and I overheard our 11 year old granddaughter explain about Pride Month to her 9 year old sister. There is hope for the world.
ReplyDeleteMarie's comment gives me hope too.
ReplyDeleteThat rainbow banner is magnificent. I have four grandchildren marching, along with their father.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea what it meant to be gay when I was growing up. As a matter of fact two of my very good friends who were guys were gay in high school. I just didn't think of them as gay. Sadly, Donald died of AIDS while we were in Illinois. When I came home to Hawaii for a visit several months before his passing I attended a class reunion, he was going around and taking photos with people. He came to me and asked to take a photo of us together with a Polaroid camera. I said, "Of course," because I thought he wanted to have a photo of me. Instead, he gave it to me and said, "Remember me." He passed away about 6 months later and it broke my heart.
ReplyDeleteI think I learned of gay when I was in high school which my mother explained to me when she said our neighbor had complained about a sister always bringing a woman friend she lived with in D.C. when she came to visit. They suspected a relationship there, but the term gay wasn't used. Decades later since I've lived in Calif. a high school classmate and I somehow got in contact. We arranged to meet when he came to the mainland as he said he did every summer from Hawaii where he was a teacher. (Had it been known he was gay he was concerned he would lose his job and a young male student in one of his classes was hassling him with such accusations in some way that he was concerned about his job.) When we met he explained he had been gay all along, had known it in high school, had a crush on one of our classmates he never acted on. I
ReplyDeletedon't know what happened as I stopped hearing from him, then learned years later he had died but I don't know of what. Since then, coincidentally, I've had three married friends come out to me as their first step in emerging, divorcing their husbands, children involved in one instance, other's children grown. They all had lovers. Years later I've had gay neighbors of both sexes move into, one couple eventually out of our neighborhood, who had partners and were raising children. I did have at least one gay patient, HIV positive when people still fearful of it, fairly young black man, who also had a slight stroke, was not recovering, tube-fed, depressed, relegated from rehab to a lower level skilled nursing facility as doctors thought he would not pull through. I was able to get him safely eating, off the tube, other therapy, so he ultimately was transferred back to intense physical rehab unit. Months later, he surprised me in a store, was with his mother, living at home now, walking about independently. Was a thrill to me to see him recovered.
Our march in London is scheduled for July 2. It's interesting that San Diego's is so late -- I thought all the Pride marches in the states were in late June because of Stonewall.
ReplyDeleteWe have a nephew that everyone thinks is gay, in his 40s, unmarried, never had a long term steady girlfriend or even a steady girlfriend, part owner of two vodka bars, big into theatrics and costumes. Maybe he's not, just not interested. I was friends with a boy in high school that everyone snickered behind his back that he was a 'homo'. That was my first encounter with 'gay'. Our longest and best friend is gay. AIDS was so horrible and this country's lack of response to the 'gay plague' was even more horrible.
ReplyDeleteI remember moving into a neighborhood in London (my 20-s) and there we so many good looking, fit, well-dressed guys around. I said ... this is going to be a great neighborhood. My friend who was more savvy than me said, this is a gay neighborhood, they will not be asking you out. ;) I had many, many gay friends in college, and sadly many of them died of AIDS. And my job in San Francisco, many friends died. That was a sad and scary time for this country. But as Marie noted, my grand kids also know and seem to respect what gay means and that does give me hope in a time where we have to grab on to all the hope we can get.
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