My Top 10 Gay Childhood Experiences

After 2 years of 2 or more posts per day, I have posted on nearly everything of gay interest that happened to me during the last 50 years.  I've completely forgotten about many of the posts.  Others were pretty bad, thrown together at the last minute, or a little off topic.  But here are my all-time favorite autobiographical posts.

1. A Boy Named Twilight.  All I remembered was a cute boy named "Twilight" running on the beach.  Those images and some research led me to an early childhood visit to Florida and a boy who became emblematic of gay potential.












2. The Naked Man in the Peat Bog.  "Don't go near the peat bog," My Uncle Paul said.  "A Naked Man lives there, and he'll eat you." But my cousins and I want to hunt for alligators. Sure enough, the Naked Man chases us away.  For years, I thought I had a bona fide paranormal experience.  But maybe it was just one of Uncle Paul's friends, pranking us.











3. Bill and I become a Mama and a Papa. A casual trip to the A&W for hamburgers turns into a glimpse of same-sex romance and societal homophobia.  And my Dad calls me "Skeezix."














4. A Naked Man for Christmas. I still have the naked statue that my junior high boyfriend and I picked out, to my father's consternation, that cold winter day in 1974.  And it led me to a line of research revealing that famous artist Grant Wood was gay.

5. Dancing with a Leatherboy in Switzerland.  My first time out of the country, at a church conference, and I meet a Swedish leatherboy.







6. Why There's a Picture of Me and a Girl in My Parents' Bedroom.  I get railroaded into going to the Senior Prom with a girl, and a photo of the event stays on my parents' mantle for year after year after year after year.













7. My Boss Lets Out His Trouser Snake.  My first job, the boss from hell, and a prank that reveals more than I anticipated.















8. Was It a Date?   My first real date with a guy -- Fred the Ministerial Student -- and I'm not sure if it's a date or not.

9. Handcuffed by My Professor.  A professor at small, conservative Augustana College, and annual handcuff parties!  But I wasn't invited, because I wasn't a geology major.  I had to find some other way to get in.











10. Is Professor Singer Gay?   In grad school in Bloomington, Indiana, my friend Viju and I try to find out.
















11. I can't forget my early-childhood glimpse of Cousin Joe's "shame," the beginning of a lifetime of gay acceptance by my favorite cousin.

Looks like I only got through 1984.  The next twenty years in the next post.