Former Member

Me! Me! Me! Okay, maybe Anders’ Gay uncle or much older Gay cousin would be more appropriate for me! But I can dream, can’t I? ;-) Many years ago, my best friend and I were sitting in a hot tub together. He reached over with his foot and groped me with his toes! We never kissed, but I decided I needed him more as a friend than possibly jeopardize our relationship by dating. It was the right decision for me. ;-)

Gene is very used to denial. This is just one more thing to not acknowledge. It’s a lesson he learned from his father. ;-)

It was nice getting to know more about Milo & Bren. ;-)

I once read a long fantasy story about a teenager who was a diver – it was a what-if for the author and his youth. The protagonist was good enough to make it to the ’68 Olympic Games in Mexico City. He witnesses Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising their clenched fists and lowering their heads in support of the US civil rights movement (the IOC banned them for life – an Australian, Peter Norman, who wore an ‘Olympics Project for Human Rights’ badge during the ceremony in support was left off the Aussie Olympic team in ’72 and was not invited to join other Olympic medalists at the Sydney Olympic opening ceremony). The protagonist was written as being at least somewhat Openly Gay (I read the story online on another site about 15 years ago), but he never meets Dr Tom Waddell (Tom would later found the Gay Olympics, be sued by the USOC and forced to change the name to the Gay Games) who was participating in the same Olympics. When I emailed the author to ask why they never encountered each other in the story, the author admitted that he’d never heard of Waddell before. The author is a closeted man who I think I remember telling me was in an opposite-sex marriage. Writing was his only outlet for his real feelings and desires. The story had reached significantly more than 100 chapters the last time I noticed it, but I had stopped reading it long before that point. A little research should have uncovered that tidbit of history.

Yup! Those were the two I sort of remembered! I think you said we’d hear from Jerry eventually… ;-)

I wonder what special skills Robert will be revealed to have? ;-)

Snively should be disbarred for his actions. There is a defense attorney in the Bay Area who apparently represents only the slimiest clients, including the two idiots who are on trial for the Ghost Ship warehouse fire. When he’s interviewed on TV, he has the most transparent theories about his clients’ motives and behaviors.

When I read headache, I was thinking brain tumor, but stroke fits too. My mother had a brain tumor and one of my best friends has had a series of strokes. And after my mother broke her hip and fell (or fell and broke her hip – doctors weren’t sure), we sat with my mother as she took her last breaths. I held her hand as her breaths got shallower and the gaps between breaths lengthened. It was very peaceful.

And Book 5 is about their first grandchildren? With Book 6 about their retirement? ;-) With the way the last few paragraphs were written, I was thinking that you were ending the Book. I’m glad there are still 12 more chapters! And I’m really glad that Kyle has learned that he can cook without unintentionally burning everything! ;-)

Maybe Billy can make a deal with Robbie! Billy can tell Nathan about Alex and Robbie can tell Brett that Billy knows who his father is! I’m sure they’d find it easier to tell someone else’s secret than their own. They’re both master-class procrastinators! ;-)

So insecure! Geoff reminds me of myself even though our insecurities manifest themselves differently. I need a boyfriend like Tony who can deal with my huge mountain range of issues! ;-)

Weren’t there also two boys who were sent to pray-the-Gay-away-(torture)-camp or something? ;-)

And now I have reset my memory. It’s a few days after Halloween and we’re dealing with newly turned vampires. We’re anticipating a wedding, but it will not be a huge international event! But now we have a representative of RIS. Pieces are falling into place. Hopefully there won’t be a second battle with the other vampires or the Russians where most or all of the new vampires and their friends are killed off… ;-)

Billy has gotten good advice in the past, from his father for example, but he has a mixed record on using the advice to his advantage. ;-)

That’s exactly what I was thinking when I read the symptoms! And wasn’t that one of his father’s medical problems? Diabetes is an inherited disease – my paternal grandfather had it so I am likely to get it too (I’ve already been diagnosed as pre-diabetic). ;-) Sometimes it takes someone who has experienced something like what you’re going through to break through the shell that you’ve created. Sometimes even friends with the best intentions can’t help. I think Billy sunk to his lowest and can only go up! I think Billy will start reaching out to the friends he pushed away. ;-)

I don’t think that Mr Albright was aware of just how strongly his actions towards Allen affected Gene. I believe that he would have tried to reach out to Gene had he known. I don’t think he understood why Gene ran so far away, physically as well as emotionally. It’s ironic that Mrs Albright and Tina so badly want Gene to father a child when Joey is the one with the son! ;-) And the school’s new GSA hasn’t even been officially been formed yet and it’s already having a positive effect on at least one of the students! ;-)

I would hazard the guess that more Holocaust deniers are non-Germans than are German. Some of them deny that Gay men exist (at least in Iran). Many Holocaust deniers also deny that Climate Change is caused by people. Denial is a powerful thing, it allows you to ignore things that inconvenience or upset you. ;-) There is a notorious Tweeter who certainly inconveniences and upsets me that I’d like to deny exists! But I don’t the ability to delude myself that well. I use all my delusive abilities in other, less productive ways. ;-)

It seemed obvious that Zoe was jealous because she had suppressed her feelings for Brad. But I see lots of problems ahead for them. I don’t think @ObicanDecko is likely to be setting us up for any sort of ménage à trois. At least I hope not. ;-)

No offense @Wesley8890, but this example shows why we need to keep telling the stories of our community and the communities that intersect and interact with ours. We cannot count on mainstream sources to tell our stories for us. California law requires public schools to teach LGBT history, but there’s already pushback and obstinacy from some of the more rural areas.

Two of my favorite podcasts are The History of English Podcast and Bay Curious. Bay Curious is from KQED, San Francisco’s PBS/NPR juggernaut, and being from SF, it has had at least one story with a Gay subject. The History of English Podcast explains the ancestry of the language. But there have been LGBT topics on podcasts like Dan Savage’s Savage Lovecast, Stuff You Should Know, Stuff You Missed in History Class, and Stuff Mom Never Told You too.

Belated birthday greetings! Just think of this as being an 11 month early Happy Birthday! ;-)

Belated happy birthday! (It seems appropriate somehow since you always seem to be commenting on stories we both read days after I have! My favorite memory of turning 25 was the refund check on my car insurance, but women don’t have to pay the extreme surcharges that young men do – you guys aren’t as reckless!) ;-)

My Aunt’s ‘roommate’ had a different recipe. No graham cracker crust. And it was baked, not frozen. The last time I had it was probably about 40 years ago when we lived near them. ;-)

Nope. Not likely to happen where I live. Very urban and relatively flat. I don’t live where the suburbs meet nature. ;-) It is possible since one historical fire in Berkeley started in the hills and didn’t stop until it reached the Bay. But the geography in my city is different and there are more natural firebreaks here including a stretch of I-80 that’s not right along the East Bay shoreline. Firefighters have a lot more experienced in those sorts of fires these days too. ;-) No hurricanes. No blizzards. No tornadoes. No Lake Effects snow. No 90°F/90% humidity at midnight (as I experienced once in Chicago) for months on end. Few summer storms. I prefer my storms and disasters. ;-)

I was wondering how you’d get a separate story about Charlie since he seems so integrated into the main series. ;-) I would die from hypothermia even with all those blankets and things. People wonder why I live in California where we have earthquakes, but I wonder why they live where it feels like Siberia in the winter and the Amazon in the Summer! Besides, the region around St Louis is going to experience another huge earthquake and they’re not at all prepared for it! The previous one changed the course of the Mississippi and rung church bells in New England! ;-)