Bob Paris

Growing up in the 1950s and 60s, I suppose I should have figured out my sexual orientation since I was always attracted to men without shirts and especially if they were lean and muscular. Oh, well, those were repressive times and homosexuality was something rarely mentioned in books or on TV and radio, at least not in any positive sense.

So it was the mid-1970s before the penny dropped for me. Finally I was able to acknowledge to others and myself my attraction to men. In the 1980s my friend Jon and I were particularly intrigued by the career of a young body builder named Bob Paris. Not only did he have a beautiful physique ... not overly large but beautifully proportioned ... but he was drop dead handsome. Jon and I were both thrilled when he eventually came out as a gay man. This did not go over so well in the body building community which although very homoerotic was at the time (and perhaps still is) very homophobic.

Jon and I continued to follow Bob Paris' career. There were photo shoots by the likes of Herb Ritts. More and more his life work moved into the areas of motivational speaking, writing and civil rights work.

For awhile I lost track of what Bob Paris was up to. Then awhile ago I read that he was living near Vancouver Island. Yesterday at work, I was working at the cash desk when I looked up and who was standing in front of me but Bob Paris himself. I did a double take at first and then realized it was indeed him.

I was mildly flustered to have one of my gay heros standing in front of me. I eventually sputtered out something to the effect that he was who I thought he was. He was very pleasant to deal with and at the end he leaned forward and offered his hand for a handshake and said: "Hi, I'm Bob."

He's still a very handsome fellow and I was thrilled to meet him. (My friend Jon met him and his then partner, Rod Jackson, in New York back in the 1990s and I had been envious ever since.)