A note slipped under his door read: “Out of your hair today. Need to take care of some business.—Mike.” He poured himself a bowl of cereal and ate it in front of the television. Then he dragged the building’s trash cans from the curb to their spot in the backyard (yet another duty that shaved a little off the rent). Finally, he stole away to his room and, even though he knew he was alone in the apartment—save for Hutch, who was sprawled across the living room couch—he closed and locked the door so that he could look at his “bag of gay goodies.” The local gay newspaper Mike had picked up for him had a headline article about a lesbian couple fighting for custody of their son—the kid’s natural dad wanted nothing to do with him, but the paternal grandmother was trying to snatch him out of his mom’s arms (the court verdict was yet undecided). Another article was about a teenager in the Tidewater area who was suspended from school for wearing a T-shirt that read: GOD IS GAY.
