As a young teenager coming to grips with the fact that I knew I was gay I well remember the early news reports about AIDS. What a terrifying time to be coming to grips with a sexual orientation that meant risking potential death with any sexual activity. Although I didn't feel this way at the time, I'm ever so grateful now that I wasn't more precocious or confident when I was going through puberty. If I had been there's a very real possibility that I would have died long ago. The few gay friends that I have that are older than me would need extra fingers and toes to count all the friends that they lost to that horrible disease.

I mentioned on the thread I started about SO stepping up to help a former employee as her medical power of attorney that she was estranged from her family. I've since found out why. She had moved here from a small midwest town in the mid-70's. Her baby brother followed a couple of years later. And then ended up being one of the early casualties of AIDS. As he got sick and eventually died their family rejected him, leaving her with the sole responsibility of caring for him. Every year for the rest of her life she walked in the Aids Walk-a-thon to help raise money for the cause and was extremely grateful that SO was able to help her name the San Francisco Aids Foundation as the beneficiary of her 401k while she was still mentally competent to make such a decision.