“Am I The Only Gay Person In Town?” Growing Up Gay in the late 80s and early 90s

Updated in June 2021 from my original post in October 2020

After the murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020, I began writing essays about my experience as a Black American.

Though I am not a get-out-of-the-street type, I wanted to participate in the discourse that was going on at that time and that continues today about race in the United States, so I wrote about what it was like growing up in a predominately white Regan/Bush/Bush Jr. stronghold in the suburbs of Chicago.

On National Coming Out Day in 2020, I wanted to reflect on what it was like growing up black AND gay in that environment at the height of the AIDS pandemic.

I was your typical 80s all-American boy: I loved GI Joes, Transformers, Hot Wheels, Star Wars, Spider-Man, and MTV. During one summer, me and my best friend Jay memorized almost all of the dialogue in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s action classic Predator.

I climbed every tree, jumped in every puddle, I picked up every earthworm after a heavy rain.

Stranger Things is so nostalgic because it reminds me of my childhood, especially the bike ride adventures

The Chicago Auto Show was my brother’s tradition every year until my junior year in college. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a car designer, but when I discovered West Coast Avengers at my local mall when I was in 7th grade, I became addicted to Marvel…