The Cakes and I have worked with Gays and Lesbians our
entire careers. I’ve worked with a Trans-gender individual as well.
Reflecting about our gay friends and associates last night
while we had our evening cocktail on the porch, I thought about my Mother’s
girlhood friend, who spent her entire life in the closet. A childhood friend’s
older brother, a successful Doctor, married with children came out late in
life. A friend and associate in radio, married to a great woman, he fathered a
little girl and remained closeted until he was stricken with AIDS and died. The
Gay kid I went to high school with who hung himself the day after graduation.
Then on the brighter side there’s my friend’s successful
younger brother, whose partner is called “Auntie Mark” by the kids in the
family. Believe me there’s a lot of good stories about good people and
acceptance by families. The best thing is my children and their children don’t
even “get’ why people would be upset or bothered by GLBT people.
When Cakes was an instructor in the US Airways training
department, her mentor was a gay man, he later died of AIDS. Every time she
speaks of him she gets tears in her eyes, he was that good of a person and a
wonderful influence in her life. One of Cakes best friends in high school was a
lesbian, she didn’t really know it at the time, but later she did.
I worked with one of the first women in radio sales in the
country, successful, strong and started selling long before women held those
jobs. Now over half of the account executives in radio are women. She was a
Lesbian.
I worked with a guy who was the leading ground gainer in
Massachusetts 4A high school football, he came out at 17 and his Catholic High
School teammates gave him their support. I asked him what his school administrators
and coaches thought, he said, “I didn’t care, I was tired of pretending to be
straight, besides what were they going to do, kick me off the team? I could
have gone to any school in the conference and become their worst nightmare.” A
number of colleges dropped their interest in him after he came out. He is now
married to a retired Navy Blue Angel pilot.
We are so happy for our friends, Bily (he says he got the
other L kicked out of him) and Matt, Steve and Anthony. They are great guys,
smart, interesting, funny and a delight to be around.
Years and years ago I was having an after work beer with a
Gay guy I worked with and out of the blue he said, “You know what’s great about
being a young gay guy?” I said, “I have no idea.” He laughed and said, “Nobody
says No!”
One last thought, I hope that Gay Salem, ND farmer who tried
to hug me so desperately one night in a bar and received an elbow in the ribs
for his trouble, found somebody to hug and to hold him in return.
