We were all baby boomers born in 1952

We survived bullying at Fairfax Highschool

We came out at the Gay and Lesbian Center

We were afraid to tell our alcoholic fathers we were gay

We let our fathers take us to a prostitute to convert us

We danced until we lost our hearing at Studio One

We met men at the Pussycat theater when it was gay

We put ads in Frontiers and met young hot boys

We didn’t have anal intercourse

We stopped dating when AIDS was blowing up the community

We started going to memorial services

We cried when they played Taylor Dayne’s “Love will Lead You Back”

We watched our lovers get an AIDS diagnosis

We attended APLA and Shanti support groups

We watched our lovers and friends die

We worried about turning positive from negative

We were scared about getting full blown AIDS

We stopped worrying and became numb

We started going to the gay and lesbian temple

We thought we were agnostic atheists

 We found religion

We celebrated our birthdays at California Pizza Kitchen

We watched our friends get Cron’s disease

We watched our friends die from inoperable colon cancer

We had IBS

We were three and became two

We started forgetting words

We lost people to ALS, Dementia, Pancreatic Cancer

We had panic attacks and had to take anti-depressants

We had weddings

We saw Obama become president

We saw parents die

We suffered when Trump was elected

We took social security and Medicare

We retired

We were plagued by Corona

We rewrote our story

This is how we got here