“Many of the out queers I knew, especially the trans people, were forced to work in low paying jobs and live in seedy neighborhoods. If you had a boyfriend and tried to rent together, very often you'd be denied because most places wouldn't rent to LGBTQ+ people. Then the 1980s hit with the double whammy of Reagan and HIV/AIDS. Of the gay guys I knew in my local high schools (3 of them), I'm the only one left alive. The older men who taught me how to live as a gay man in a hetero world, told me stories of the 1950s lavender witch hunts. They worked to protect each other. They'd find 'dates' with women that they could go on to be seen, or when needed for company parties. Things are so much better now.”
MORE TALES from the past
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