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Page 2
Tapestry
June 26, 1995
Tapestry's apartment, Lower Haight, San Francisco
James is one of his roommates
Tapestry: The more distance I got from my job, the more I started enjoying life and I began to see that the problem had been me. I was the one who came home bitching. I don't know how many times I started a sentence, "And then at work!" It was a bad fuckin' record. Now, I'm going to BAY Positives and volunteering in the mornings. I'm around people who I'm learning from, and after a conversation I had today, I feel that others are getting something from me too, which feels really good. I'm doing something I have been doing for a long time. When I came out as gay I came all the way out. My lover had died. I thought, OK, well, if I'm going to be out, I'm going to be OUT. Break windows, crash doors, tear down the building. Deal with it. I started doing support groups for youth because there really weren't any.
MW: How old were you when
you came out?
Tapestry: To myself, I just turned 13, to other people, 14, about a year later.
MW: And your lover died when you were only 14?
Tapestry: Thirteen. I started dating him when I was 11. I started really young. He was 13, three years older.
MW: How did he die?
Tapestry: It was... sort of a nasty thing... I was in the room with him when he died, which is one of the reasons why the thought of death has never been a big deal. I was with somebody I cared for more than myself, and when he died... but I learned to let go. I mean, as pissed as I was because I was still here, he had this blissful look on his face, and that's what it was all about. So, there was nothing to be scared of because he was gone, he was young, and he had a smile... I thought I had dealt with that issue but I guess... to a certain degree I haven't, but that's another story...
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