This story touched close to home for Grandmaster DeMasco. He asked that his reply be published here. As promised, the author’s name has been redacted to protect their privacy.
Hello,
I am very happy that you have finally found peace and found a peer group.
My brother was extremely dyslexic and was put in a special class in school. He was tall, overweight and also had a terrible time in school. He was very intelligent and his IQ was off the charts. He had a couple of girlfriends growing up. After high school, he had a few jobs.
Then he went to work In a gay bar in Boston. I never knew my brother was gay. As a kid that grew up the way I did and dated a lot of girls, it was difficult for me to relate to him. Although I had good friends who were gay it was different for me when I found out my brother had gay partners. I didn’t judge him. I just didn’t understand. We were both young men at that time. I just had a difficult time understanding how and why.
Many years passed, then I found out that he moved to San Francisco. He was my half-brother and the golden child to my stepdad. I never got along with either one of them. When my brother was 31 I got a call from my mother telling that my brother had AIDS and he was going to die. I flew to California to see him. It had been over 10 years. It was the first time in all our years he and I talked about life.
He told me that when he went to work at the gay club that up to that point he never had a sexual encounter with a male. He said that in fact he never thought about being gay. What he did say was for the first time he felt accepted as a person. That they treated him with respect. He also said that he did allot of sexually stupid things at that time. When I went to see him he had been living with his boyfriend which was going on a few years. He was a really nice guy and I truly believed they loved each other.
My bother also told me that he moved to San Francisco because it was easier to be a gay couple there. He said he never liked or believed in gay demonstrators. He just wanted to be with his partner in peace. My brother died a year later at the age of 32 and his partner died a year after that. They both were robbed of their life. I never forgot what he said to me. “ I was finally accepted and they treated me with respect.”
I feel in life all we want is to be loved and have others treat us with respect. Although I wished my brother Billy and I had a better relationship growing up as kids, and it was totally my stepfather’s fault that we didn’t. I am really happy he and I made the peace before he died. I am sure he felt the same way.v
I hope you have found peace in your life. I also want to thank you for sharing your story with me.
That is why I have shared this one.
Sincerely,
Grandmaster Steve DeMasco