Three Gay Men

Who Saved My Life- but don't tell.

I was taking language brusher up immersion in the south of france. I won't tell you where or you will get jealous. My favorite language teacher in the little program was a guy name Claude who were he about a foot taller would have been my forever boyfriend (I thought at the time), but as he was an adorable shrimpboat (don't tell him I said that) I found another romantic intrigue in the south of france, which, after all is the place for that sort of thing.
My georgeous man friend was tall, tan and handsome and we dated, almost every night for about two weeks and I was falling for him a bit. Then entered the Blonde Belgiun who spoke better french than I, and more masterfully worked the art of seduction. Hey, I'm American, and I don't play that (much)- So my fine friend about three weeks into the crush hooked up in the European sense with the Belgiun and I was emotionally deflated in the South of France. No place to be emotionally deflated. Fear Not- entered Claude who not only taught me some pretty awesome french phraseaology, but took me to lunch and even let me house sit for him for free when he went to Spain on vacation so I could stay an extra two weeks in France just hanging out at the beaches. Above and beyond Monsiour instructeur. He got me safely to the airport, blew two french air kisses at me and kept in touch for years via email. I love him to pieces.
Claude opened up a bit about the fact that his 'partner' in Paris died of Aids. His partner was at one point married and had a natural son named Michael. As a result when Michael was quite young Claude formally adopted him and became the child's father. (The mother was a disfunctional nightmare apparently) Claude, on top of being a linguist teaching french classes was getting an advanced degree in nursing because his ambition was to be able to go all over the world (Africa in particular) to help AIDS patients. Claude is a practicing Catholic. He helped save my life.

The next salvation story is about someone you may know because he lives in DC so I will use a pseudonym and call him Ron. Ron also lost a partner to AIDS. I was in between law jobs and going through very tough issues, financially, emotionally, spiritually- every which way but loose. I was listed with a translation service to tutor French in DC. Ron called me. He wants to learn French. He was planning some travel. He suggested we meet at the Methodist Church Hillary used to go to which had classrooms he could reserve-quieter than meeting at Starbucks. So we met there at first, then he started opening up about himself a bit. He suggested that we meet instead at his apartment in Dupont which he proudly just redecorated after his partner died to freshen it up and give himself a new start. He was deeply grieving still. He lost the love of his life. Pictures of the partner were still prominent in the apartment next to his parent's photo. Ron was from the South and prefered living in Washington, DC- he felt suffocated in his small home town.
He was HIV positive also and took a medicine cabinet full of pills that he had laid out neatly in little plastic boxes. He was trying to stay alive, and I was trying to keep him that way also. He worked at NIH in Bethesda on some cutting edge cancer research. Teaching him french gave him inspiration that one day he would have a little house by the water somewhere in Brittany, France and retire there. He gave me hope that I could be a great French teacher if I felt like devoting time to it and remembered that I had a thought in high school that this would be a great way to justify frequent trips to France.
He helped save my life.

The next person you will recognize in the everyman generic sense because you know him too- he is the Gay Priest. I will just call him Father. Before Benedict came in office five years ago there were a lot of gay priests- then he laid down the law and 'cleaned out' the seminaries.
Men would choose to live forever together with other men for a reason I reasoned- no interest in women might mean interest in men or it might mean just no interest or that actually calling and 'gift' of celibacy given to people like John the Baptist who didn't ask for or relish that 'gift' no doubt any more than he relished being locked up underneath Salome's dancing shoes.
The Priest gave me the Bread from Heaven. He helped save my life.

So if a French Linguist, a NIH Researcher, and a Priest can help save my life, don't you think that a US Soldier can help save yours too? I do. Why on earth wouldn't you let them?

THANK YOU to the House (and Nancy of course) for passing the repeal of 'don't ask don't tell.
Now lets not let the Senate Filibuster Buster Brown. Just let them serve our country and thank them for it.

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY