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"I was not a Lindenberger by birth, but adopted by these good people when I was four. It includes four years in foster homes before that, and visits, on occasion, from families thinking of adopting. They’d show up, with presents and smiles, and never come back. I include these facts here because they offer some context for the double life I led until my twenties. I never knew I was gay—not really—until I was in my late teens, and it would take until my mid-twenties before I’d begin to accept it, and share it."

"Looking back, maybe it’s no surprise that I knew so little. There was so much that I didn’t know then. Across the United States, homosexuals—and, increasingly, heterosexuals, too—were dying in large numbers from AIDS, but it didn’t register with me, not in any kind of way that left a mark."

"The AIDS crisis changed the gay community in Louisville, like it probably did everywhere. Besides the obvious toll it took, it also pushed many people out of the closet, long before they were otherwise ready."

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Michael Lindenberger