longer.blue

So it's Pride Month. Thought I'd tell my coming out story. I knew I was gay by the time I was 10 or 11. Went through puberty around 11-12. Noticed boys in locker rooms and couldn't figure out how to process those feelings. Did a lot of reading (I'm a nerd) in the library (301.41 in Dewey) and shoplifted gay porn until I realized the store owner was gay and would sell me the $1.95 magazines. Finally came out for real the summer of 1981 when I graduated HS. A close friend and I went to the local gay bar (The Bar, Champaign, IL) and they let us in even though we were 16 (drinking age 19). My VERY Catholic parents found out the next summer and freaked. It took them 6-7 several years to come to terms with it, but they eventually did. When I got married in 2009 I did not want to put my father in an awkward position of not giving the toast at the wedding so I asked his very funny sister. She's a bit of a raconteur. When she was done he grabbed the mic from her and proceeded to equate my relationship with his and my mother's. Jerk made me cry. 😊 He's 87 years old. And a good guy. And that, kiddies, is my story. Been married 21 years.