Gay and Older Than 50

Your excellent report on AIDS (“Life Is Forever Altered as an Epidemic Turns 20,” June 3) contained a curious quote from an interviewee: “I don’t know how to be a 50-year-old gay man, and there aren’t that many of them around to tell me.”

Actually, there are good number of us around. And we’ve learned a lot to still be here. It’s just that we seem to be invisible to a younger generation. To see us depends upon someone’s internal ageist barometer. If it’s set to instinctively divert the eyes downward or to the side when anyone over 40, 45 or 50 comes into view, then I guess we might be out of sight. Generational sharing is possible. All it takes is looking around with eyes and minds open.

Steve Spurgeon

West Hollywood