The first gays I ever met

That awful gay marriage "comedy" starring these two jack asses is getting ready to open nationwide in a theatre near you soon. How dumb is the studio who green lit this project? Did they really think that America wanted to see an unfunny movie that is mocking the fight that gays and lesbians are waging for equal marriage rights?


The only thing good about this stinker may be that it gets all of us talking and thinking more about equal rights for all. It got me to thinking about the first gay people I ever met.


Technically the first gay person I ever met was my Uncle Jerry. He was my Mom's brother and he was gay. He did not come out or anything when I was young but he was gay nonetheless. The grown ups on my Mom's side of the family referred to Uncle Jerry as a 'confirmed bachelor.' He lived by himself, as far as I knew, and he went to work every day that he was supposed to and he lived a regular life. He never seemed like he was a crazy sexual voracious pervert or anything like that to me. He just seemed like he was a regular guy who was nice to us kids and who took us out from time to time, he took me to my first pro hockey game when I was a kid.

Years later when I found out he was gay, I also found out from my brother that Uncle Jerry was sick and dying of HIV/AIDS or one of the many diseases related to it. My brother said that Uncle Jerry turned into a bitter angry old man who no one wanted to be around. That bit of news did not surprise me since after all Uncle Jerry was gay before Stonewall, before the gay pride movement, and when he finally did come out everyone knew he was dying of that awful disease. He never got to be who he truly was and he had to endure society's taunts, prejudices, and scorn. His parents would have thrown him out and turned their backs on him if he had come out when they were alive. So really, it's no wonder he was a bitter angry man when he died.

The first out gay person I met was a man named David. He was a friend of my Dad's. They met, I believe, in one of the many mental hospitals my father was in during the late 1960's and early '70's. At that time the American Psychiatric Association said the being gay was a disease so people had their gay sons and daughters put in mental hospitals along with people who actually were mentally unstable.

David came to visit one day and us kids were introduced to him and then we were herded upstairs to play. I think my Mom was afraid for us to be around David, as if he had some gay germ he would infect us with. He and Dad stayed down stairs and played records, talked and laughed, drank a few beers, and then he went home. He seemed perfectly normal to me and my Dad seemed to like him. I don't know what has happened to David since but I'm sure he had to put up with all that same shit my Uncle Jerry did.

My point is that gay people are normal, they are just like you and me. The only difference is that they love people of their own gender. And I, and millions of others as well, think that they should have the same legal rights to marry and adopt children just like straight people do. I'm willing to bet that gay and lesbian married couples would be a hell of a lot better at raising children and making a marriage work than a lot of straight couples you and I know.

I can't do anything about my late Uncle Jerry or about my Dad's friend David, but I can do something about seeing to it that gays and lesbians are granted the same rights and protections that I have. And I can also damn well make sure that I never ever pay to see that piece of junk that The King of Queens and Nicky Boy made. And I hope you don't either.