by Edward Lemay

1961: “I Couldn’t Bring Myself To Write The Word ‘Homosexual.’”

“What Was It Like? Stories by LGBTQ Elders” is a new program by I’m From Driftwood, in partnership with Comcast, the nation’s largest cable provider, and SAGE, the count1961: “I Couldn’t Bring Myself To Write The Word ‘Homosexual.’” The year is 1961. I had just graduated from high school and I was on my way to St. John’s University, w1962: Falling In Love With A Fellow Classmate In Seminary School. I was born in 1943, and this happened when I was a sophomore at St. John’s, so 1962. At St. John’s and in manHomework Assignment: “Go To A Singles Bar And Pick Up Women.” This was in 1962 or 63. I’m a student at St John’s and St John’s was known as “The College Behind the PinSabotaging Relationships With Women: “I Think My Subconscious Kicked In.” I had been trying to change my sexual orientation. I’d been trying to be straight and so much of meVisiting A Gay Bathhouse: “It Was A Great First Time.” I had been in therapy to become a straight person, and part of the therapy was to date women. I found, actually, a very,“I Was Very, Very Fortunate In The Sixties That My Parents Were So Accepting.” It was the late Sixties. I was visiting my parents in Minnesota and, fortunately, there was an a“Luke Will Always Be Just A Very, Very Incredible Person In My Life.” So it was the late Seventies I was living on Devisadero and saw this ad in a San Francisco gay newspaper ...

by Jim

I’m From Cloquet, MN.

Cloquet, Minnesota, was (and still is as far as I know) a rough redneck mill town with cliques and gangs and many problems. I was the gay, geeky, nearly blind kid that was the eas...