remind everyone. take us back to 50 years ago, when it was against the law to be in a bar, in a public space as a same sex couple, not even kissing, touching one another. tell me about that time. well, it was a very claustrophobic time. it s a time where you were always worried about your own personal safety. it wasn t just what was illegal, we were also routinely beaten up, i mean, straight people would generally guys would go into the village with the express purpose of beating people up. queer bashing is what we called it. you were beat up? i ve been beat up multiple times in my life, yes. wow! we were kind of hit from all different directions, our families would disavow us. we were at risk for our own personal safety. we would be fired from our jobs if it was discovered we were gay. now flash forward to 2019