Who are we? The gay old souls. The men who cling to “middle age” while our bodies nudge us into elderhood.

We are sons of the original gay old souls. We follow the generations that at first finessed the closet and then shattered its doors. In the wake of the Stonewall generation, we took up the struggle to create an out, gay culture. A defiant and fierce people, we sought full equality in all aspects of business, society, education and spirituality.

We are the survivors, the righteous remnant of a lost generation. We lost more brothers than we can bear to remember and can never forget.

And ours has been a generation of firsts. Fill in the blank. “First openly gay . . . .” We accomplished far more than most of us ever expected. So much that a generation follows us that has little grasp of what “it was like back then.” There seems no need for them to take up the struggle–at least in this country.

So what is our role?  Now that the quest is nearly over?  What is the purpose of gay old souls?  What is our experience?

Age ought to bring wisdom.  For me it brings mostly questions.  But the journey still excites.