Category: gay couples

Early Gay Marriage; RIP Cameron Fox; Netherlands Gay Village; Dancing Dirty by Ryan Field

Early Gay Marriage

I always find it interesting that people like Theresa Santai-Gaffney, the woman deer hunter who is trying to appeal Judge Jones’ ruling in Pennsylvania that made gay marriage legal, don’t take into consideration that gay marriages have been around since the beginning of this country. I live in New Hope, Bucks County, PA, now, but I grew up in sleepy Salem County, NJ where it wasn’t uncommon to find two women living together in the same house, sharing their lives, and neither one ever bothered to marry a man. In fact, my first exposure to same sex marriage…and I knew it instinctively at the time…was with two women who lived four houses down from the home where I grew up. One worked as an executive secretary for du Pont De Nemours and the other worked as a school teacher. There were several others who spent their lives together putting on a façade when in reality they were living as a married couple because gay marriage wasn’t even a thing people discussed. Of course there were whispers and comments made sometimes, but all of these women were respected, participating members of the community and everyone accepted them…as long as they kept it quiet.

Of course what I’m talking about wasn’t that long ago, but I’m making that point because things have changed so much in such a short amount of time. The article to which I’m linking now discusses same sex marriage in early America. For those of you who think gays getting married and spending their lives together is something new, you might find this interesting. And it happened long before Pride Day transpired. I highly doubt Theresa Santai-Gaffney would be enlightened by this because she’s too far gone and her head is too far up her ass. But as long as there’s a chance of disabusing one person of misguided notions about gay couples and same sex marriage it’s important to keep talking about these things.

In a graveyard in the village of Weybridge, Vt., stands an unusual headstone. It is inscribed with the names of two women, Sylvia Drake and Charity Bryant, who were born during the Revolutionary era and died in the middle of the 19th century. The women were pillars of their community for four and a half decades, living together in a small house, running a tailoring business, teaching Sunday School, and acting as surrogate mothers and caregivers to hundreds of nieces and nephews. They were also, according to their own understanding and that of those around them, a married couple.

The paragraph above reads much like the story I just related.

You can read more here.

What’s interesting is that you rarely hear about same sex marriage between two men in early America. Or for that matter, I don’t even remember two men living together the way women did when I was growing up in small town America. A man who never married lived alone and was a bachelor. I do know it was a little different in more urban areas for men. But in small towns two single men rarely shared the same home. The risk was too great and the stigma too dangerous.

RIP Cameron Fox

All male adult entertainer at Falcon Studios, Cameron Fox, died at the age of 36 last Thursday. So far, there’s been no cause of death disclosed. He’d been on the scene since 1999 and won a few industry awards.

Chronicles of Pornia made a nice tribute to him.

‘There was a time during the 1990’s gay porn industry pantheon when stars were truly stars whom did not need to pander for adult fame, rather, they simply let their work speak loudly and proudly.

 ‘Cameron Fox was one such person.

 ‘I never once felt as though Cameron was phoning in a performance. He was virile, engaged and present at all times. ‘He gave more than 100% to his action scenes. Fox knew how to give his partners and his fans what they wanted to see. The mark of a real porn star.’

You can read more here at Chronicles of Pornia.

The decade of the 1990’s really was the heyday for gay porn. It was pre-internet and videos and DVDs were the only way many gay men could find all male adult entertainment in a safe, discreet way.

Netherlands Gay Village

I have never been fond of gay ghettos…or the concept of “gay ghetto.” There are a lot of gay people in the area where Tony and I live, and it is a more progressive place than a lot of small Pennsylvania towns, but we don’t live in what is considered a gay ghetto. And that’s a conscious choice to a certain degree. New Hope, PA has a gay ghetto. We just don’t live in it. We’re on the outskirts of town on a more rural road and the farms and homes around us are mostly straight people. The concept of gay ghetto always seemed dangerous to me, especially when it’s self-imposed.

In any event, there’s a new gay village being built in the city of Tilburg by a Dutch developer and some are worried this might be more about containing gay people rather than keeping them safe. It will be fully enclosed with a tall fence.

The ‘Gay Village’, planned for in the city of Tilburg, would include 13 different locations for housing. The average price for the detached and terraced homes would cost around €250,000 ($338k).

The company says the project is a reflection of research that shows 22% of gay men in the Netherlands sometimes do not feel safe in their own neighborhoods.

Frankly, it sounds more like a gay concentration camp to me. If there’s an issue with crime against gays in these neighborhoods maybe officials should be cracking down on that crime so gays are safe everywhere. And maybe gays should be prepared to defend themselves. I’m all for peace, hope, and love, but I learned how to take care of myself a long time ago and if you screw with me you might be surprised at what I have up my proverbial sleeve.

You can read more here. It’s interesting that this is happening in the Netherlands, mainly because I’m always hearing how much better things are over there than here in the US from my ultra liberal friends. They all ride bikes over there, they all live in tiny little boxes, they have windmills, etc… I guess they don’t mind living behind fences either.

Gay advocacy groups over there seem to agree with me on this one.

Dancing Dirty by Ryan Field

This book was, indeed, a gay parody I wrote as a take on the old straight romance, Dirty Dancing. I disclosed that up front, and I did it when big publishers were NOT doing it. It’s not fanfic. It’s parody. It’s also a common trope that’s been used time an again by straight writers and I wanted to make it gay for gay people and readers who enjoy reading gay romance. We don’t get much in that mainstream respect. And I don’t believe there are any new tropes left out there.

If I had to say what’s my ultimate summertime book so far, this would be it.

 It’s the summer of 1978, it’s the middle of the disco era, and dancing is one of the hottest trends. But eighteen year old Junior has never seen the inside of a gay bar or danced with another man. His mother and father think he’s just shy about meeting girls and that he’ll grow out of it. His little sister drives him insane with her constant invisible companion, a talking dog named Elmer. All Junior cares about is meeting the right man and falling in love.

But when his parents buy a summer home in an exclusive resort community in the mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania, his prospects of finding love don’t look too promising. His first day there he meets an aggressive, abrasive young woman who isn’t the least bit shy about letting him know she wants to get to know him better. And the more he ignores her, the more she chases after him.

While his mother and father are enjoying all the amenities of the resort, and his sister is flirting with one of the waiters, Junior mopes around watching everyone else have fun. That is until he meets a handsome young dance instructor named Carlo who changes his life in ways he’d never dreamed were possible.

From the minute Junior lays eyes on Carlo, he knows he’s in love. And in order to prove his love, he’s willing to make personal sacrifices that no one else has ever been willing to make for Carlo…

 
 
 
 

From an Amazon review you can read at the link above:

I really enjoy the way this author takes classic stories and gives them a new twist. This book was no exception. I got a kick out of seeing how the story changed with two male protagonists, the love scenes were hot, and Junior’s internal monologue was thought-provoking. There seems to be a fun little paranormal twist with the sister’s dog, as well.

 
 


Our Vermont Wedding; T. J. Klune Post; Free Gay Excerpt

Our Vermont Wedding

When I mentioned that Tony and I were engaged to be married last December, I also told people we hadn’t officially made any plans because our goal, after twenty-one years together, and after sharing the first half of our lives together, was to keep the wedding very simple and quiet. But then a few unplanned events started to unfold, one thing lead to another, and there are now a few significant details about our wedding I’ve been waiting to share for the right time that include a movie, a supreme court justice, and a very gracious woman at Phineas Swann Inn.

We started making plans to get married at Phineas Swann, an Inn in Vermont, earlier this month. We did this because we’ve been all over New England but never Vermont, it’s pet friendly and we’re bringing both dogs, and also because of so much that has happened with gay marriage took place in Vermont. That last part was planned, and we did want that historical touch because that’s important to us both. But the rest was a big surprise to both of us. A couple of weeks ago we received a call from the owner of Phineas Swann and she informed us that an indie filmmaker, Jeff Kaufman, from Los Angeles was doing a documentary called The State of Marriage on same sex marriage and he was interested in filming our wedding. And then she told us that Beth Robinson, Vermont Supreme Court Justice, would be there and she would actually be performing the ceremony for us. Of course the owner of Phineas Swann was very gracious and she wanted to make sure this was all okay with us, and that it wouldn’t interfere with our original plans. And it was her graciousness, and our strong feelings about legal same sex marriage, that helped us make the decision to agree to do everything they were asking.

So that’s about it for now. We’re heading to Vermont early next week and the ceremony will take place at eleven o’clock on Tuesday at Phineas Swann Inn. I wish I knew how to do those streaming feeds so family, readers, and online friends could watch it live, but I’m just not good enough at those things to pull it off. But I will post photos and other things I think people and blog readers might enjoy, here on the blog and on social media. I’ll have tablets and iPhones with me the entire time and I’m not planning to go blank next week. In fact, we originally planned to keep this all so simple we’re heading back the next day because of work obligations.

I’ll also keep updating about the film, The State of Marriage, in the coming months. I have no idea what part of the film we’ll be in, or how we’ll come off. But Kaufman has a good reputation for doing what he does, and we’re both looking forward to meeting him.

Side note: the only regret will be returning to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania where we live and pay taxes, and where gay marriage still is not considered legal.

T. J. Klune Post

I have to admit that it takes a lot to gut me sometimes. But I’ve become very emotionally involved in what’s been happening with M/M authors, TJ Klune and Eric Arvin. The post I’m linking to now, written by Klune, will explain everything to those who don’t know what I’m talking about right now.

I know we all go through serious times in life, and everyone gets his or her own share of pain and sorrow. But the health crisis with Klune and Arvin hit so close to home for me, and for what I experienced with Tony’s health crisis in 2007, I actually do feel gutted each time I read something else. I also feel a strong sense of pride when I see how so many have supported Klune and Arvin during this time. I don’t think of this as fandom. I think this goes deeper and shows how strong online relationships can be, and how they continue to evolve and grow.

Here’s an excerpt from TJ Klune’s most recent post.

As I write this, I am sitting in a waiting room of a respiratory hospital in Richmond, Virginia.  It’s 11 in the morning on a rainy Friday.  It’s cold outside.  We’re supposed to get snow later.  I forgot to grab my heavy coat when I packed my bag this time. I accidentally left my gloves at the hotel. Forgetting little things is normal for me these days, as are the purple lines under my eyes from lack of sleep that don’t ever go away.  Normal is the leaner face I see in the mirror from the weight I’ve lost. Normal is the Kleenex I keep in my pocket to wipe away the tears that too come easy so he doesn’t see them when I sit beside his bed.

You can read more here.

Free Gay Excerpt

I know this isn’t the longest excerpt I’ve ever posted, but it’s my latest novel in the Glendora Hill series and I often do these things for selfish reasons. I like seeing how they look on the blog, and in these raw versions (this is unedited) I often find a lot of inspiration that’s very hard to explain.

It’s so new I’m only about 25,000 words into it. I don’t even have a title, or a blurb. But I will say this: I see a lot of Christians slamming gays all the time and never taking into consideration that there are gay Christians. I wanted to put that in a book and show them.

When Kelly Barrett mapped out the route he would take from Buffalo, Wyoming to Glendora Hill, Texas, he chose one that would take him through Arizona so he could see the Grand Canyon. He planned this without fanfare or misguided expectations. He’d always dreamed of going there and knew he might not get the opportunity again for a long time.

            Kelly had taken a new position as ranch manager for a small ranch in a town set deep in Texas Hill Country called Glendora Hill. Although he’d loved working as a ranch manager in Buffalo, Wyoming, Kelly’s partner of five years, Dudley Long, had accepted the position as Pastor of a new church between Glendora Hill and Austin, Texas, and Kelly couldn’t hold him back. For a gay minister it was the opportunity of a lifetime. This new church was one of the most progressive in the country and they welcomed LGBTI people with wide open arms to the point where they’d specifically gone searching for a gay pastor.  

            The job offer came fast and Dudley couldn’t refuse because the church in Wyoming where he’d been pastor had closed six months earlier for lack of funds. When Dudley heard mention a gay couple in Glendora Hill, Texas were looking for a new ranch manager, it sounded too good to be true. The ranch in Texas was only twenty miles from the church where Dudley would be working. It was such a poor congregation there were no funds for housing and Kelly and Dudley would have to find a home of their own at their own expense. So when Kelly discovered the ranch manager position in Glendora Hill came with a great salary, full benefits, and included housing at the ranch, he aggressively went after the job without thinking twice. It was one of the few times in Kelly’s life when things actually fell into place without having to struggle too hard.

            As he pulled out of a gas station not far from the Grand Canyon, he frowned when he glanced into the rear view mirror and saw a guy on a motorcycle tailgating his truck. He was wearing a lime green and black helmet and Kelly couldn’t see his face. It was eight in the morning and there weren’t many cars on the road. Kelly glanced at the speedometer and frowned again when he saw he was doing the posted speed limit. He also wondered what was going through the guy on the motorcycle’s mind, and how he could take so much for granted. The guy seemed to trust that Kelly would not stop short or make any sudden moves, which made no sense at all for anyone who knew the basic principles of defensive driving. The motorcycle resembled a toy compared to the huge black pick-up truck Kelly was driving.

            The guy on the motorcycle followed him to the entrance of the Grand Canyon and then disappeared when Kelly pulled up to pay the admission fee. When he entered the park and spent the day walking and taking photos, he forgot all about the guy on the motorcycle. But as he pulled out of the park around five o’clock that afternoon he took a deep breath and sighed when he saw another motorcycle not far behind.

            He knew it was the same motorcycle from earlier that day because he spotted the lime green and black helmet again. But just to be certain he pulled over to the shoulder and made a phone call to Dudley in Texas to let him know where he was. As he pulled his phone out of his pocket the motorcycle passed him without fanfare, he got a closer look at the helmet, and he took another deep breath and sighed aloud. Then he dialed Dudley’s number and waited for him to answer.

            “Hey,” Dudley said, on the fourth ring. “Where are you?”
            “I’m just leaving the Grand Canyon now,” Kelly said. “It was spectacular. I wish I could have spent a few days here. I wish you could have been here. You would have loved it.”

            “We’ll make that a plan,” Dudley said. “As soon as we get settled here, that will be our first vacation.”

            “I’d like that,” Kelly said. “You’d be amazed at how many private little trails I saw. We can have so much fun behind a rock.”

            Dudley laughed and said, “I’ll bet we could.”

            Kelly smiled because Dudley’s reaction sounded fake, which meant he probably wasn’t alone. “Who’s there with you?”

            “Ah, well,” Dudley said. “I’m here with one of the church women and we’re discussing a new youth committee.”

            Kelly laughed. “I see. I guess you can’t talk about having hot sex with me in trails now, or about how I want you to pull my pants down behind a rock.”

            “I think you’re right about that,” Dudley said, pretending to laugh a little too loudly.

            Sometimes it bothered Kelly that he couldn’t act and react like other gay men he knew. It was bad enough that he was a cowboy and he had to deal with certain restrictions of his own, let alone the restrictions he faced all the time being married to a minister. As the husband of a minister he was expected to be prim and proper. He couldn’t tell dirty jokes, or swear in public. He couldn’t make campy gestures, allow his wrist to go limp, or talk about gay culture in depth. Even though Dudley’s church was highly progressive, it was still a church and people expected the pastor and his partner to behave a certain way. But he was used to it and he didn’t let it bother him often.

            “I’ll let you go then,” Kelly said. “I can see you’re busy. I’m driving through Arizona tonight and I’m not stopping until I reach New Mexico. I’ll call you in the morning.”

            “Be safe,” Dudley said. “Love you.”

            “Love you, too,” Kelly said.

            He stopped for something to eat at a fast food drive through about an hour later. He wanted to reach Silver City, New Mexico before midnight without wasting a moment. He’d planned ahead and made a reservation at a motel earlier that morning. Now that he’d seen the Grand Canyon and he’d gotten that out of his system the long road trip had lost a good deal of its excitement and all he wanted to do now was get to Texas, start his new job, and be with his husband.

            Though he’d planned for seven hours on the road, he pulled into the motel in Silver City around one in the morning and yawned when he noticed the front office was open twenty-four hours. The motel complex was a low-slung one story affair designed in an L-shape, with beige stucco exterior walls, a roof with missing Terra Cotta tiles, and a vacancy sign at the entrance that hung slightly to the right from old rusty chains. He noticed a swimming pool in the center of the complex, with plastic tables and chairs he’d seen in low-end discount stores. The pool area was surrounded by a rusted chain link fence that reminded him of an old junkyard back in Wyoming. And the only landscaping he noticed between brown weeds and thorny grey shrubs were those stereotypical cactus plants that didn’t even look real.

            He yawned again and pulled up to the front office to check in for the night. It wasn’t the kind of place he would have stayed in if he’d been traveling with Dudley. But he figured because he was alone he might as well save money, sleep in the cheapest places possible, and save up for a few new things he wanted to buy in Glendora Hill. The ranch manager’s cottage on the ranch where he would be working came furnished, and Dudley was already living there and he said he loved the way it looked. But Kelly had always been picky and he had very specific tastes. He knew, without even seeing the cottage, he would want to make changes there and those changes would cost money.

            The clerk in the main office reminded Kelly of a character in an old film, but not just one specific character. She was more of a combination of several. This woman had to be in her seventies, with long straight blond hair, parted dead center with a long chunky braid that trailed down her back. She wore too much pancake make-up in the most garish pale shade just shy of clown white, dark red lipstick, and two heavy dots of blue eye shadow. He dress was a flouncy cotton deal, with tiny pink roses and vines of ivy, a matching belt at the waist she’d cinched to the point of discomfort, and a lace collar. If she hadn’t been so deadpan in tone and lackluster in expression Kelly would have thought he’d run into the reincarnation of Baby Jane Hudson from the old Bette Davis classic, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane. But when she refused to even look up and make direct eye contact with him once, she reminded him more of Norman Bates in Psycho.

TV Show "The New Normal" So Accurate It Reminded Me of Something That Happened to Us


For those who don’t know, there’s a TV show in the US this fall that revolves around the lives to two gay men…a “married” gay couple who seem to be in their thirties or forties. I’ve posted here about the show before.

I think last night’s episode was only the second to air. I enjoyed the accuracy of the first show and was hoping for something similar for the second. I wasn’t disappointed. The two gay men are in the process of having a baby and they’re going through all the emotions all married couples experience when they have babies. In one scene they go shopping to some sort of low end discount store and they wind up looking at baby clothes. They encounter a straight couple with a child and the straight man not only bashes them in public for kissing in the store in front of his child, but he then goes on to rip them to shreds for wanting to raise a child of their own.

It was as ugly as hate gets. It was something most gay men can relate to at least once in their lives. And what was even worse was that the gay couple just stood there and took it without fighting back. One of them made a few comments, but he knew he couldn’t win. The scenes that followed this scene when they went home were even more intense. It showed how gay couples are treated, with the kind of accuracy that I can back up from my own personal experiences.

When Tony and I met in l992, Tony had just bought a town house in a cookie cutter sub-division in Newtown, PA. Newtown is a nice upscale suburban community with excellent schools, shopping centers, and parks. The moms are blond and drive mini-vans; the dads play golf and drive mid-size American company cars. It’s a suburb of Philadelphia and it’s also located about eight miles south of New Hope, PA, where we live now. But that eight miles could be a million miles in more than one respect.

I wasn’t thrilled about living in Newtown for many reasons. But I didn’t have much of a choice. Tony had purchased the house exactly two days before we met and the deal was done. And I liked him and I wasn’t going to let a town stop me from getting to know him better. I also had a gallery in New Hope, which was only eight miles away, and I spent most of my time at the gallery, seven days a week.

For those who have never lived in a cookie cutter town house sub-division, it’s not always like you see it on TV. For the most part, no one really ever gets to know each other. You see people coming and going to and from work and that’s about it. And because most of our friends were from New Hope, not Newtown, we didn’t get to know anyone on that street for the seven years we lived there. At best it was a wave in the morning if you ran into someone leaving at the same time you were leaving.

And during those seven years we never thought much about being different from the straight people who lived on that street. We were so busy back then with work and travel we barely had time for a social life. And the social life we did have consisted of friends I’d met in New Hope at the gallery. And, like I said, if you were to drive down that cul-de-sac at any time of the day or night, you’d never guess anyone actually lived there because you never saw people outside for more than a few minutes at a time.

One cold day in December of l998 while I was hanging a huge wreath on the door for Christmas and Tony was outside near the garage, our next door neighbor was outside with his eight year old son putting up lights. I’d nodded hello earlier and went back to hanging the wreath. I didn’t give it a second thought.

After I hung the wreath, I went to the front section of the small piece of property and started to clean up a few leaves left over from fall clean up (in town house communities like this you get letters from the HOA if everything’s not perfect). While I was doing this, Tony was only a few feet away doing something with a snow blower he’d just purchased. Looking back, it all seems so Norman Rockwell it’s hard to believe we actually lived there.

But then something happened that changed the way I looked at that town house community forever. The straight guy next door told his kid to do something and the kid didn’t want to do it. So he looked up at his father on a ladder and said, “I don’t want to put up Christmas lights. Why can’t we just put up a wreath like the fags next door.” This was verbatim, from an eight year old. And the only place an eight year old hears that kind of language is from his parents.

Tony and I exchanged glances at the same time and just stood there with our mouths hanging open. The straight guy climbed down the ladder, grabbed his kid, and yanked him into the house without saying a word. Not an apology…nothing.

That same night I said to Tony, “It’s time to move. We’ve been here seven years, we’ve never fit in, and what happened today is the end for me. We either move to New Hope, where I work and have friends and it’s tolerant and gay friendly, or we move to New York or Philadelphia and live in the city. But I’ve had it with sub-divisions and middle management town house communities.”

We listed the town house that week, I took down the wreath and started packing, and we were out of there by April of l999. And I have never missed that place once since we left. Moving those eight miles to New Hope, where there’s culture, theater, and tolerance not only changed our lives, it improved them. And even though things have changed a lot since 1999, they haven’t changed all that much and I wouldn’t move back to a sub-division if my life depended on it.

I hope that “The New Normal” keeps doing what it’s doing. It showed that these things do happen to gay people all the time…which is why we live in places like New Hope, not Newtown. I hope the writers and producers continue to discuss the things that affect gay couples in a realistic way, unlike other TV shows with gay characters before them. What happened to Tony and I was not as dramatic as what happened to the couple on “The New Normal,” but hate is hate, and when it comes from the mouth of a child it’s even worse because you know that child had to learn it somewhere.

The Characters in Pretty Man

Though PRETTY MAN is by no means the first piece of fiction I’ve ever written, it was one of the first books I wrote for ravenousromance.com. As with almost all of my books, I take little pieces of real people that I’ve known personally, put them altogether, and create fictional characters. It’s almost like sewing a quilt, or putting a puzzle together.

I’m sure all writers have a difference process. But this is how I do it. Let’s face it, even the most interesting person I know wouldn’t be interesting in fiction. Fictional characters have to be, and are supposed to be, larger than life…even when those characters are simple and unassuming and don’t seem all that exciting.

But I saw a few reviews and comments about the characters in PRETTY MAN that surprised me. And frankly, they still surprise me two years later. Some readers didn’t like the way the two main characters had an open relationship and thought nothing of inviting other men into their relationship. They didn’t think it was realistic enough, which left me shaking my head.

In the real world, and I know this for a fact, there are many gay couples in long term relationships that engage in three-way sex or with multiple partners, without thinking twice about it. I have many good friends who have been together for many years and having an open relationship, for them, is what actually keeps their relationship exciting. I also have many gay friends who don’t do this. They just aren’t into it. But we only seem to hear about the gay men who don’t do this, not the gay men who do this. And that’s just not real.

The characters in PRETTY MAN do have an open relationship. And I wrote this as a conglomerate of knowledge I’ve gained in my forty years of living on this earth as a gay man. I didn’t just dream it up; it exists whether we like it or not. And I tried to portray the two characters in PRETTY MAN as having a solid, dependable relationship in spite of their penchant for inviting multiple partners into their relationship. And I gave them a happy ending I thought was appropriate to their situation.

In order to keep these characters alive, and to show readers they did actually live happily-ever-after, I’ve included them in the new sequel I’m writing, THE VIRGIN BILLIONAIRE’S SECRET BABY. And the contrast is interesting, because the two main characters in THE VIRGIN BILLIONAIRE’S SECRET BABY are completely monogamous and they don’t invite anyone into their relationship.

Once again, gay men are as complicated as they are simple. And in gay relationships it’s not uncommon to find couples who have been together for many years engaging in sex with multiple partners. I don’t just make this stuff up. I wish I did, but I didn’t. And I think it’s important for readers to know that the gay couples they see on TV and in movies, are pretty much nothing like gay couples in real life. And before anyone comments, I’m sure there are couples like the two gay guys on Modern Family. Only I don’t know any, and I know more gay couples than straight couples.

How Gay Couples Celebrate Anniversaries…

The other night at a Christmas party I was listening to a conversation about how gay couples spend their anniversaries. The guy I went to the party with is single and straight (most of the time) and he was just as interested as I was.

There must have been at least four gay couples talking about this, and all have been together for at least twenty-five years. Or course I’ve heard about this before, but my straight friend seemed a little shocked. It never occurred to him there were so many different ways to celebrate the anniversary of a long term relationship. In his world, it’s usually the day a couple is married. I know there are exceptions in straight relationships, too. But for the most part, it’s the legal wedding date.

Here were a few examples:

Celebrate on the day they met for the first time.

Celebrate on the day they had sex for the first time.

Celebrate on the day they made an official commitment to each other for the first time.

Celebrate on the day they moved in with each other for the first time.

Celebrate on the day they shared their first date.

And, one couple decided to celebrate on the date they bought their first house together.

And each couple at this party did something different. They also said they didn’t need an actual wedding date to celebrate, but they said they wished they’d been given the choice like everyone else.

Beekman Boys

When I switched from comcast to verizon fios earlier this summer, I had no idea the transition was going to be so difficult. I don’t watch much TV because I’m usually writing books, reading books, or editing books. But I do watch a few hours at night to clear my head. And getting used to the verizon set up wasn’t easy.

But one of the great things I discovered on verizon fios this summer was a TV show called The Fabulous Beekman Boys. It’s a reality show, starring a gay couple, Dr. Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell, who decided to make a life-change by buying an old mansion in upstate New York and building a business around it. They remind me of the two main characters in my book Sleepless in San Francisco, only they aren’t raising a child.

But they are raising goats and other fascinating farm animals, along with making organic soaps, growing organic vegetables, and creating their own organic goat cheese. Everything can be purchased at the web site, too. And you can read more about them both, and about what they are creating at Beekman. What I love most is that it’s more about a healthy lifestyle than anything else. And, to be honest, Dr. Brent is absolutely adorable and very easy in the eyes.

As someone who has started two businesses on my own, and then sold them both for profit, I know how hard these guys work. In order to get any business off the ground, it means working seven days a week, at least twelve or more hours each day, and no time off for a social life. I did it for ten years with my New Hope art gallery, and five more with another business I sold in 2007. And I’m still doing it as a writer, which is just as demanding as running any other business.

So if you get a chance, check out the link I provided above. Beekman 1802 is a great web site and very simple to navigate. But more than that, these two guys are excellent examples of the same sex couples I’m always writing about in my novels.