Petrelis Files

Second Meeting w/Straight Mormon Recruiter; Kushner's "Angel" Characters

The day before U.S. AIDS Ambassador Mark Dybul spoke at the main branch of the San Francisco public library, I went there to meet a friend and do some research on old MSM stories on HIV not available on the web.

Who should I run into, by himself with his recruiting partner nowhere in sight, but none other than that very attractive beefy straight young male Mormon I attempted to recruit for the gay community back in March.

Elder Adams was using a free Internet-access terminal on the first floor and he stood out like a sore thumb in his dark gray business suit, clean white shirt and tie, and name tag hanging from his breast pocket. I wondered where his Mormon buddy was since I thought these recruiters were required to always travel the streets in pairs.

He remembered me from last month and seem to welcome the chance to chat again. I asked what he was doing at the library and he said doing research on the area where he was being sent to next for his church. Unlike the last time we met, this time he didn't speak about his religion and I didn't try recruiting him into the gay lifestyle.

And since I had my camera with me, I requested another photo of Elder Adams. He smiled and said, "Sure, snap away." Hmmm, for a straight Mormon guy he sure has no problems with a gay man taking his photo!

This second chance encounter with Elder Adams, in which we just made friendly small talk, struck me as a rare and weird opportunity to again simply dialogue with a person so different from me, across religious and political barriers. What are the odds of running into him again, I mean, not at his recruiting location, the BART station at 16th and Mission streets?

I don't know the answer to that question, but I can tell you that my two chats with this young Mormon man reminded me of two characters from Tony Kushner's play and HBO movie "Angels in America." If you've seen or read it, you may recall the closeted gay Mormon lawyer from Utah, Joe Pitt, coming to terms with his homosexuality, and his off-beat and abusive relationship with Louis Ironson, an openly gay Jewish New York legal word processor.

Yes, I see some of Elder Adams in Joe Pitt and much of my politics in Louis Ironson, so in a very small way, my two chance meetings with him are just a reminder of how life can sometimes imitate a tiny portion of the cultural arts.

If I meet up with Elder Adams a third time, I must remember to ask him his first name. I just can't get used to calling such a young man by a very formal title.