My First GLBT Acquaintance, by Phillip Hoyle

My first gay acquaintance had a rather elegant name, Edward F. Printz, III, something I never expected of a person from a western Kansas farm. I knew him as Ted. Of course he drove a tractor, but he also sang at school, was the drum major for the high school band, and by the time I met him he’d been hired as the music director for our little college. My last semester there Ted led the choir I sang in and taught me vocal technique. I learned so much from him.

While I was unschooled in language like “gay” and had heard “queer” as an old fashioned word one of my grandmother’s used with some regularity, I knew in a flash that Ted would be interested to do some of the sexual things that I also would be interested to do had I not got married a year and a half before meeting him. I really liked his buoyant and outgoing personality and hoped he would never ask me to do those interesting things with him. I knew I would not ask him to do them with me. Still I realized that we were much the same and came to understand that sameness to be gayness. I picked up the gay word from reading a book in the school library, a sociological study that along with its main topic defined some common gay male words. I learned more about this world of gay and found myself interested, oh so interested.

 I felt no compelling need to enter that world but still was curious. Ted and I became life-long friends. He became a regular visitor in our home after I graduated. Since we had moved to the city where his voice teacher lived, Ted visited us some weekends. One summer while he was in graduate school and lived with us, Ted served as tenor soloist in the Chancel Choir I directed. Our friendship became more complex. The relationship between the ever-teacher Ted and the ever-student Phil endured until Ted’s death on his 47th birthday, April 29, 1994. Eventually I did enter Ted’s gay world. I lived as an openly gay man and dedicated my fifteen years of massage work with HIV positive persons to his memory. And I recall his wisdom and humor almost daily.

© 17 July 2017 

About the Author 

Phillip Hoyle lives in Denver and spends his time writing, painting, and socializing. In general, he keeps busy with groups of writers and artists. Following thirty-two years in church work and fifteen in a therapeutic massage practice, he now focuses on creating beauty. He volunteers at The Center leading the SAGE program “Telling Your Story.”

He also blogs at artandmorebyphilhoyle.blogspot.com