I want to elaborate for just a brief moment on something I mentioned in an earlier blog post.

It deals with human sexuality.

A friend of mine died of HIV/AIDS in 1994. He had been sick for about six years before the virus took its gruesome toll. Tim was a colleague with whom I worked at a newspaper in Beaumont, Texas.

One Sunday morning, my phone rang at home. It was Tim. He wanted to meet me at the office to discuss something very important to him. I agreed. I hung up and told my bride that “I think Tim is going to tell me he has AIDS.”

Those who knew Tim had noticed a significant change in his appearance over the years. He lost weight. His color had gone quite pale. He didn’t look right.

Sure enough, that’s what he did. He and I sat in the vacant newspaper office and he informed me had been stricken with the then-deadly virus. He told me he had drafted an op-ed column and wanted to know if I would consider publishing it. I answered with an emphatic “yes!”

Then he said the following related to how he contracted the illness., “You know that I am gay.” My answer was the best I could produce in the moment. I told Tim that he and I never discussed his sex life. I also told him that is a subject I dare not broach with anyone. So … my answer was “no,” I could not possibly know for certain about his sexual orientation. Did I suspect it? Yes, but suspicion is far from knowing.

My point is this: I am uncomfortable talking about sexuality, be it with a gay person or a straight person, When I see people, or groups of people, bellowing about their sexual “pride,” it is a turnoff to me. This notion of having to identify people with a string of letters meant to be sure we cover all the sexual orientations available, to put it bluntly, leads me toward a discussion topic with which I am in no way comfortable.

It’s why I generally stay away from the topic on this blog.

Is this the old-fashioned version of me telling you this? It is! It well might be the final time I raise this issue in this forum.