Logical Family: A Memoir – An Unflinching, Inspiring Chronicle of Gay Rights from Conservative Roots to San Francisco

by Armistead Maupin

Sooner or later, though, no matter where in the world we live, we must join the diaspora, venturing beyond our biological family to find our logical one, the one that actually makes sense for us. We have to, if we are to live without squandering our lives.

MOST OF US don’t know when our Moment comes. We don’t feel it at all. It’s just a passing whim, or a phone call or a snippet of conversation that leads to one thing and another and you end up with a life you would never have had at all had it not been for that first thing, that first random thing. Mine was just a funny lead I had followed up on. A

QUEERS WHO EMBOLDEN one another to be honest about themselves can feel real exhilaration in that moment, and it can last them a lifetime. Your tribe, as Isherwood called it, becomes a source of great sustenance. A terrible weight that you have borne for years becomes apparent by its sudden absence.