Full circle, we’ve come from the initial nude photos of me on Cupecoy Beach (1977), to this photo of me on Black’s Beach (2023). The curator of my Palm Springs exhibition suggested that I end my gay historical anthology from 1977 to 1996 with this photo, highlighting the rollercoaster of oppression and liberation that is being gay in the United States. Back and forth we’ve gone, from the societal oppression of a pre-Stonewall age, to the sexual freedom of the 1970s, to the tragic discovery of AIDS in 1981. The path to gay happiness is less like the straightforward passage of time and more like the ebb and flow of the waves on the beach: ephemeral yet endless for those that choose to enjoy it.