Jamie, even before our friends, boyfriends and lovers started dying of HIV/AIDS in the 1980's, we saw friends and family who had the bad luck to drink, drug or just drive carelessly die rude young deaths. I was maybe four or five the first time I saw a dead body, but by that time I'd already seen ghosts all of my life. I still do. Every time I pass through the old gayborhoods in a new town I see the beautiful young men who lived there, in whatever century. Our deaths, like our lives, are uniquely different from those who lack the gift of being LGBTQ. I wish everyone could see the beauty I see.

Keep writing.