Stories from a man who fails to meet media expectations of what it means to be gay:
white, frivolous, over sexed yet sexless, shrill, single, stylish, a clown, unimportant, et al.

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�Quien es Nico? or, the obligatory bio.

version one:

Nico is a 30-something, dark eyed, dark haired, relatively short, Latino, former dancing fool, fairly liberal, nerdish, occasional insomniac, cranky, genXer, home owning, moody, movie going, might as well be married, occasionally moody, normally nonredmeat eating, comic book reading, adult, normally slow to anger, nonvegetarian, goofy, government employed, science fiction geek, cat owning, gardening, fairly calm, fairly lazy, nonclothes hound, usually nontrend following, somewhat passive, Spanglish speaking, music listening, nonfiction book reading, gay, virgo, born in the year of the sheep, Los Angeles native kind of guy.

version two:

Nico ⁽¹⁾ is a thirty something⁽²⁾ latino⁽³⁾ gay man⁽⁴⁾ living the life⁽⁵⁾ in Los Angeles⁽⁶⁾ with John⁽⁷⁾, his partner of the past decade or so⁽⁸⁾.

1. Yes it�s my real name.

2. I was born in September of �67, which makes me part of the baby buster/ genXer/ slacker (always hated that slacker label) generation. What this means is that I came of age in the Eighties, with all that implies.

3. Yup, Latino, Mexican American, Chicano, all accurate labels in their own way. What this means is that occasionally people (um, normally Anglo folks that is) assume that I don�t speak English and try to talk to me VERY loudly in halting Spanish. I�ve never understood the logic of �If you yell loud enough they will understand you better.� The truth is that I speak English far better than I do Spanish. Actually, when I�m tired or not paying attention, I slip into Spanglish. There is a lot more that can be said regarding language, race and the politics of dominance and assimilation, but that �s way beyond the scope of this small little fake bio.

4. Yes, gay. Gay and Latino. Multiple minority labels. Always fun getting flack from multiple directions at once. Anyway, I came out the closet to myself in High School and started forging my identity in College. I was a liberal gay Mexican American kid at U.C.Irvine, a conservative school in conservative Orange County, during the decidedly conservative Eighties. Underdog may be an understatement.

5. No I don�t have a good definition of �the life� or what it takes to live it.

6. I was born and raised in Los Angeles. I�ve never really felt the need to leave and settle elsewhere. As a friend once put it, I�m a �Settler� and not a �Traveler.� She didn�t mean it as a compliment, but I have accepted the truth of the label. Home and hearth are important to both John and me. Of course, that doesn�t mean that we never actually go anywhere, but hey, she was talking about life, not vacations.

7. John is my �hubby�, my "partner." I consider myself very lucky to have him in my life. He�s a keeper.

8. We have been together for ten plus years now. We got together right about the time I graduated from school, so that�s June of 1990 or thereabouts. That seems like a loooong time seeing in print like that, but it hasn�t been. It feels like it has only been a few years at most. Is that good or bad?

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