David, my friend in San Francisco, spent the first 43 years of his life in small-town Arkansas, a conservative Baptist minister who had barely heard that gay people existed, and certainly didn't know that he was himself gay. After all, he was married. He had two children. He lived in Arkansas.On January 6th, 1996, his 43rd birthday, he realized that he was gay. Within a week, he had his first same-sex experience, resigned from his pastoral job, moved out of the parsonage, and asked his wife for a divorce.
By June he was living in San Francisco, He got an apartment and a job, joined a gym, bought a new wardrobe, and went cruising.
After 43 years in the wilderness of the Straight World, unwilling to touch, look at, or even fantasize about the masculine, he wanted to make up for lost time by experiencing masculine beauty at least once a day, preferably twice.
Hooking up with two new guys every day, even in Gay Heaven, is a herculean task. You have to be always "on," looking constantly, at work, at the gym, on the Muni. You have to walk down different streets, go to different bars and restaurants, so you don't run into the same crowd all the time. And you can't be picky: you have to be available to every man of legal age, whether he's old, young, short, tall, thin, or fat.
Later, the logistical problems of hooking up so often made him revise his goal to one a day. Still during the last twenty years he's probably been with around 5,000 guys.
Here are his 20 most memorable hookups, one-night stands, and public sexual encounters.
1, The Bible Boy of Castro Street. In June 1996, shortly after we met, David shocked me by picking up a street preacher.
2. Brad Pitt. In August 1996, David and I had a four-way with Corbin the Gym Rat and Brad Pitt.
3. The Homeless Kid. In September 1996, David shocked me again by actually talking to a panhandler. And inviting him over for dinner.
4. Santa Claus. David wasn't usually into the bear type, but he made an exception for Santa Claus, aka Bearnard, in December 1996.
5. The Straight Boy at the Garlic Festival. David even cruised in the Straight World. It paid off when we went to the Gilroy Garlic Festival in July 1997.
6. The Car Wash Boy. David was visiting a friend in Oakland, and they passed one of those buffed college guys who advertise car washes by taking their shirts of.
7. The Abductee. Alien abductions were all the rage in the 1990s, so what better place to cruise than at a support group for abductees? Of course, David had to have his own abduction story....8. The Brothers. David was quite a twink magnet, but he didn't discriminate. One summer he hooked up with two tourist brothers from Slovakia, both in their 40s, while they were traveling with their wives.
9. Kevin's Old Apartment. In March 2003, I flew out to San Francisco for a visit, and David and I tried to track down my ex-boyfriend, Kevin the Vampire. We hooked up with the guy currently living in his apartment after a conversation of less than five minutes.
10. The Hitchhiker. In August 2003, David came to visit me in Florida, and we drove down to Key West for the weekend. On the way we picked up a teenage hitchhiker, on the way to his freshman year at Florida International University.
The full list, with nude photos and sexual content, is on Tales of West Hollywood.