“Growing up in the ’50s and early ’60s, it’s still illegal. Harry Breaux, 77, talked about his parents sending him to military school for six years to repress his sexuality. There was somewhat of a stigma around HIV and around the whole image of the gay world,” he said.
“Even though it was New York, it was still the ’80s. “So I had to come out to her multiple times,” he said.Īn older man in a green jacket who described himself as a “gay Jew” recalled being in a gay bar for the first time on Memorial Day in 1985. She was kind and open, but she was also experiencing dementia. Michael D., 20-something, talked about coming out to his grandma, a sweet and friendly lady, he said. Kelsey, a 34 year old, described growing up in a conservative, evangelical Christian family where queerness was never on the table.