HAPPY NEWS!!!
On Saturday, my brother and his partner of 20 years were married.
In 1991, at the lowest point of his life, my brother met an older and wonderful man. Jamie (my brother) was feeling trapped and burdened by the life he had chosen for himself. He had tired of the disco-twink lifestyle (his words, not mine) and was seeking something that lasted more than a weekend.
He found that when he met Jim.
Jim's partner Raymond had recently died of AIDS. Jim was moving on with his life and trying to find a new partner.
My brother said it best in his gratitude to Jim at the beginning of the ceremony. Jim saw through the youth and mess took my brother in. They fell very deeply in love, and then the worst happened. When they decided to become serious and committed, they went together to be tested for HIV.
Jamie tested positive, and Jim did not. My brother faced a devestating choice. Pay the COBRA for losing his health insurance (which was legal for HIV diagnosis at that point) and not be able to live, or go on public assistance. Jim refused to allow him to go on public assistance, telling him that he had been through that with Raymond, and it contributed to his death. Jim paid his COBRA and steered him through private insurances and to good doctors. He literally saved my brother's life.
Twenty years later, Jim and Jamie walked down the aisle together in the First Parish Church of Quincy, Mass. Their route took them past the pews that the original patrons of the church, John Adams and John Quincy Adams, sat in every Sunday and over the tombs where those distinguished people and their wives have lain for almost 200 years.
God made the East Coast quake for joy, knocking over lawn chairs, and then threw a hurricane that the celebration continued with nobody being able to leave Boston for a few extra days.
The words they used when they slipped back on the rings they have worn for years says it best, "I am as I ever was. Yours."
In 1991, at the lowest point of his life, my brother met an older and wonderful man. Jamie (my brother) was feeling trapped and burdened by the life he had chosen for himself. He had tired of the disco-twink lifestyle (his words, not mine) and was seeking something that lasted more than a weekend.
He found that when he met Jim.
Jim's partner Raymond had recently died of AIDS. Jim was moving on with his life and trying to find a new partner.
My brother said it best in his gratitude to Jim at the beginning of the ceremony. Jim saw through the youth and mess took my brother in. They fell very deeply in love, and then the worst happened. When they decided to become serious and committed, they went together to be tested for HIV.
Jamie tested positive, and Jim did not. My brother faced a devestating choice. Pay the COBRA for losing his health insurance (which was legal for HIV diagnosis at that point) and not be able to live, or go on public assistance. Jim refused to allow him to go on public assistance, telling him that he had been through that with Raymond, and it contributed to his death. Jim paid his COBRA and steered him through private insurances and to good doctors. He literally saved my brother's life.
Twenty years later, Jim and Jamie walked down the aisle together in the First Parish Church of Quincy, Mass. Their route took them past the pews that the original patrons of the church, John Adams and John Quincy Adams, sat in every Sunday and over the tombs where those distinguished people and their wives have lain for almost 200 years.
God made the East Coast quake for joy, knocking over lawn chairs, and then threw a hurricane that the celebration continued with nobody being able to leave Boston for a few extra days.
The words they used when they slipped back on the rings they have worn for years says it best, "I am as I ever was. Yours."