by Scott Riedel

Hi, I’m Scott Riedel. I’m from Ironton, Ohio. It’s a small town in southern Ohio. I moved to New York about twenty-five years ago and met my partner Gil. Gil was born and ra...

by John Paul Horn

My name is John Paul Horn and I’m from Bakersfield, California. I grew up in foster care from the age of 8 to 18. When I was in eighth grade, I remember the director of the grou...

by Judith Fitzgerald

My name is Judith Fitzgerald and I’m from Timberville, Virginia. I remember times that I wished my father wouldn’t come home because of the chaos that I grew up in. There was ...

by Eric Schroekenthaler

I’m Eric Schroekenthaler and I’m from Plover, Wisconsin. The summer before my senior year of high school, I had come out and early in my senior year of high school, an acquain...

by Christian Tanja

Hi, my name is Christian Tanja and I’m from Bakersfield, California. A few years ago, when I was in college, I was sitting down at a restaurant with my then-boyfriend at the tim...

by Tolga

My name is Tolga and I’m from Malatya, Turkey. It’s a small, conservative town and we are all raised conservative as well. I remember every time I was going to school, some of...

by Richard Eric Weigle

“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 count1967: “From That Moment On, I Never Had One Moment Of Guilt About Being Gay.” The year was 1967. The war in Vietnam was raging. I just graduated from college and I was lucky 1970 Greenwich Village: “I Felt Like I Had Really Found Heaven.” In 1970, after a long stint in the Peace Corps and traveling back through many, many countries, I arrived bacPre-AIDS Greenwich Village: A Time Of “Free Love, Open Sex And Tolerance.” I feel very fortunate to have lived in Greenwich Village in the 70s, pre-AIDS. t was a wonderful t9th Grade English Teacher Rescues Former Student From Sexual Mishap. In the 1980s, I was teaching in New Jersey, commuting out from Grove Street, from Greenwich Village, and I ha1985: Rock Hudson’s Death Hurls AIDS Into Public Consciousness. In the early 80s, it was still a wonderful time because it seemed like everybody was curious about gay life. Peo“It’s Just Incredible To Think Of What We Lost [To AIDS].” The late 80s and early 90s was a sad time for many gay men. There was, there were a lot of people dying. I lost mLife After Fifty As A Gay Man. Life after 50 as a gay man. Well… you know, I have always been lucky in meeting people on the street. Whether I had my dogs or a grocery bag or a...

by Aurelio Giordano

My name’s Aurelio Giordano and I’m from Brooklyn, New York. So back in 2008, at the time I was working as an executive assistant in the marketing department of a large media c...

by Levi Wade

My name is Levi Wade. I am from Harrison, Arkansas. So the town I’m from, Harrison, Arkansas, there’s an active KKK outside of the town. And I remember specifically when I was...