Curtis Comer will turn 47 this year. Although he still feels like a 26-year-old, he has been forced to endure some unanticipated consequences of aging. For one thing, he found that instead of going out to bars, he preferred hanging out at home with Tim Woods, his partner of twenty years, and a few close friends.
For another, he discovered that it wasn't just the hair on his head that was turning gray, it was also the hair on his chest, which was a little embarrassing at the swimming pool.
None of it was tragic, but it was still, he felt, unexplored territory worth writing about.
"In the gay community," he explains, "you don't think about getting older."
In 2009, after getting laid off from his job, Comer began writing a column about being gay and middle aged for the Vital Voice. Earlier this month, a collection of those columns, expanded and revised, were published as a book, (Not Quite) Out to Pasture by Walrus Publishing.
Comer stresses that the book is not just for the gay community.
"Aging happens to all of us," he says. "Everybody experiences that first gray hair. People look in the mirror and see their moms and dads. It's frightening. Especially when I see my mom."
