The Guncle

by Steven Rowley

Self-love for gay people can be an act of survival.

“What do you think gay people do? Have done for generations? We adopt a safe version of ourselves for the public, for protection, and then as adults we excavate our true selves from the parts we’ve invented to protect us. It’s the most important work of queer lives.”

Books should be an experience, he thought, not a trophy for having read them.

As little kids, they would hug every night before bed. Patrick wondered when that stopped, when intimacy between boys became something to be mocked and not celebrated.

“Pain doesn’t lift until you feel it.”