WE GOT HERE
by Gordon Blitz

We were all baby boomers born in 1952
We survived bullying at Fairfax High School
We came out at the Gay and Lesbian Center
We were afraid to tell our alcoholic fathers we were gay
We let our fathers take us to a prostitute to convert us
We danced until we lost our hearing at Studio One
We met men at the Pussycat theater when it was gay
We put ads in Frontiers and met young hot boys
We didn’t have anal intercourse
We stopped dating when AIDS was blowing up the community
We started going to memorial services
We cried when they played Taylor Dayne’s “Love will Lead You Back”
We watched our lovers get an AIDS diagnosis
We attended APLA and Shanti support groups
We watched our lovers and friends die
We worried about turning positive from negative
We were scared about getting full blown AIDS
We stopped worrying and became numb
We started going to the gay and lesbian temple
We thought we were agnostic atheists
We found religion
We celebrated our birthdays at California Pizza Kitchen
We watched our friends get Crohn disease
We watched our friends die from inoperable colon cancer
We had IBS
We were three and became two
We started forgetting words
We lost people to ALS, Dementia, Pancreatic Cancer
We had panic attacks and had to take anti-depressants
We had weddings
We saw Obama become president
We saw parents die
We suffered when Trump was elected
We took social security and Medicare
We retired
We were plagued by Corona
We rewrote our story
This is how we got here