August, 2021 | Issue 326 | Qsaltlake.com
from the publisher How can this be my 40 year high school reunion? I’m not yet 40! BY MICHAEL AARON
Forty
years ago this month I was moving to Ballif Hall at the University of Utah. My first time living on my own. I’d received a full scholarship to study ... civil engineering. I think we know how that ended up. A few months later, I’d find myself with a crush on a red-headed boy in Calculus I. He introduced me to a bunch of gay boys and ally girls who hung out at Liberty Park with their trunks popped open blasting music, dancing, and laughing. And kissing. It was the first time I saw two guys kiss each other who weren’t me. I then noticed an ad in the classifieds section of the Daily Utah Chronicle that said they had meetings of gay Catholics at the Newman Center. While I was raised Catholic, it was more of a Christmas/Easter Catholic thing. I never attended, but I looked for that ad every week seeking connection. I saw gay porn for the first time at a house party and I remember being amazed that such a thing existed.. In short, I was introduced to a community I didn’t know existed. To think how this community has expanded over the past 40 years and the progress made in that time. While I will see people I grew up with, studied with, learned the basics of socializing with, and got past the awkward teen years with, it is the time I left and met a red-headed boy and a community where I feel my life began. So, maybe I am just turning 40. Q
FIRST WORD | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | 5
