Richard

STORY: Richie and I met as teenagers in the gay clubs in Boston and both moved to NYC in 1979. We used to go to Studio 54 and Mudd Club...

May 24, 20181 min read

Brotherly Love

STORY: 1976-1979—I moved to NYC for a position in a bank training program in October 1976 and almost immediately befriended another...

May 19, 20184 min read

Hong Kong 1984

STORY: Homosexuality was illegal in Hong Kong back then, but for the ex-pat community it was mostly overlooked by the authorities. Gay...

May 19, 20182 min read

Coming Out, 1982

STORY: During my first few years in NYC, I only had one foot out of the closet. I had my gay friends, and I had my straight friends and...

May 19, 20182 min read

Pool and Garden Time

(August 1993)–After a long, hot day on Fowler Beach in South Hampton, my guests and I returned to our backyard pool for a dip and some...

May 12, 20181 min read

Louis the Cajun – Quarter Stories 12

STORY: 1981—Cajuns have a way about them, the way they move as men, the heavy beards, beefy bodies, thick hair all over em. Sexy as...

May 11, 20184 min read

Fire Island Virgin

STORY: 1979/1980—My first visit to Fire Island was over Halloween weekend in 1979, long after the resort’s summer season had ended. The...

May 9, 20184 min read

Bourbon Street Exulting – Quarter Stories 8

STORY: 1979: A thunderclap woke me up and then loud voices. I hadn’t gotten much sleep but wasn’t hungover. I felt a buzz all around me,...

May 7, 20186 min read

Group Travel, Puerto Vallarta–1990s style

1989 to mid-1990s –My husband, Ron Oyer, had a travel business in the 1990s that catered to gay men, geographically mostly from...

May 7, 20181 min read

Jewel’s and the Shah – Quarter Stories 7

STORY: 1979–Dinner at 1132 Bourbon Street at the dining room table was a daunting experience with all these handsome men, at least 10 to...

May 6, 20187 min read

Ghosts and Lovers – Quarter Stories 6

1979 – “The rules of this house during Mardi Gras are” as George South proceeded to tell all of us hung-over guys at about 11am on...

May 5, 20186 min read

Mardi Gras Mambo – Quarter Stories 5

1979: Getting to work at Café Lafitte on the second night of Mari Gras was tough, even though 1132 Bourbon Street was only a couple of...

May 4, 20184 min read

Bartender Debut – Quarter Stories 4

STORY: Mardi Gras, 1979: Clyde, Al and I began walking up to Lafitte’s. Clyde started talking about Louie Hartfield and his lover Steve,...

May 3, 20187 min read

Arrival – Quarter Stories 3

1978: Safely landed at New Orleans Airport, Al and I jumped into an airport van and headed straight to the French Quarter. As the van...

May 2, 20185 min read

Heading to New Orleans – Quarter Stories 2

1978: The stewardess gently told us to fasten our seatbelts, we were now descending into New Orleans. I thought it was part of a dream. I...

May 1, 20186 min read

Gay Pride 1994

STORY: NYC Gay Pride, 1994 —That’s me on Fifth Avenue in the almost-Daisy-Dukes, tubes socks and boots (with Little Tom who now lives in...

Apr 30, 20181 min read

Introduction–Quarter Stories 1

STORY: (Late 1970s-1980s): In New Orleans, Bourbon Street runs for thirteen narrow blocks, roughly north to south, a straight line,...

Apr 29, 20183 min read

Meeting Gary

STORY: Mykonos, 1985–In early September 1985, I spent a week on vacation in Mykonos. Early in the week, I spied a handsome, muscular,...

Apr 24, 20181 min read

The Queen of Disco

STORY: June 1978–The cracks in my closet appeared slowly. By 1978, I was out with my family and my college fraternity brothers, but I had...

Apr 4, 20182 min read

My David Kopay Story

STORY: I was raised in the arch-conservative Florida panhandle near the Alabama border in the late 1950s and 1960s. In those days, and...

Apr 4, 20186 min read