“I started carrying an old tour book for the Florida Keys in my bag with me at all times. I'd had it since I was a kid, and after my daddy died, I read it to escape back to memories of him taking me there. As I read it to my guys, we'd leave whatever hospital we were in, and go somewhere beautiful, away from trouble and worry. They'd all come home to Arkansas, a place that had birthed them but wouldn't claim them. So we left. . . . We went someplace else, where they were safe and warm. Where there was nothing to be hidden and nothing wrong with admiring the way the sun shone down on the beauty of men. As it it existed for that very reason -- to be admired and loved.” SufferingReadingBeautyBooksEscape Book:All the Young Men: A Memoir of Love, AIDS, and Chosen Family in the American South Source: All the Young Men: A Memoir of Love, AIDS, and Chosen Family in the American South
“Paul and I had one umbrella between us, and we rushed through the rain to get to the tent. "This is for family only," Billy's mother said. We stood there in the rain for a minute, away from them, huddling under Paul's umbrella.. And I gritted my teeth. "Paul," I said slowly. "Throw that umbrella away. We're gonna stand in the pouring rain, and we're gonna get as wet as God wants us to get." I paused. "And then we're gonna hug every member of that family, so they know what they did to us. SO they can *feel* what they did to us. All of us. Because they are assholes.” SufferingCrueltyMourning Book:All the Young Men: A Memoir of Love, AIDS, and Chosen Family in the American South Source: All the Young Men: A Memoir of Love, AIDS, and Chosen Family in the American South