"A True Love Story..."

Jacques & Abi Sacramento, California 

I am Jacques, I'm 55 and a California native. I'm a college educated professional who has worked in an environmentally oriented career for over 27 years. I live with my partner of 32 years and we recently married in June with twenty of our closest friends and associates in attendance.

I have been involved in a wide variety of gay-oriented activities and I have been a proud and out gay man since first moving to Sacramento in 1976.

I knew of my attraction to men since I was 5 years old and have had NO question about my sexual- orientation.

I was born in San Francisco in 1952, and I was raised by my single-parent mother, the son of my Air Force dad with two older brothers. I was educated at University of California Berkeley during the anti-war movement and I've always been strongly anti-war and pro-environment. I earned my MA degrees in geology, paleontology and biology with a minor in music.

I moved to Sacramento in 1976 to start my second degree training in teaching. I abandoned that pursuit because of the anti-gay teachers movement the country was experiencing at that time. Instead, I began working as an engineer for the State of California.

My interests include bicycling, in which I organized the first AIDS bicycling benefit fundraiser in 1983, riding from Sacramento to San Francisco's Castro Street Fair, raising $4500. I have bicycled across Europe setting a 200 mile distance and time record. In Japan and Australia, I set 100 mile distance- time records as well, all on a bicycle built in 1886.

I collect and restore antique bicycles for display and riding. I serve as curator with a museum in Davis, California as part of a UC Davis University project. I have displayed my restorations in various museums, auto shows and art galleries. I also enjoy sailing where I designed and built my own catamaran.

I love music which includes building guitars, lutes and other fretted instruments and playing these instruments as well as the sitar and other fretted instruments and keyboards. I am forming a group playing synthesizer and other keyboards together with a drummer and other musicians. We anticipate holding a live performance in a year or so.

I have been a part of the Sacramento AIDS foundation since its inception in 1983. I modeled for magazines including some gay "porn" such as Daddy and Hand-jobs magazines for fun. Also did 10 videos for Altomar Productions.

My Partner of 32 years, Abi, who is 70 years old, comes from Detroit. He was educated at Wayne State University with a degree in Art Education. He moved to Sacramento in 1973. He worked in human services for 13 years. His strong interests are in weaving, art history and a strong love of collecting antique and modern miniature dollhouses and their furnishings.We met in December 1976 and have lived together since. We are both very community-oriented and we support gay political functions and movements. We are both naturists and love the outdoors.

Excerpted from:

Gay in America by Scott Pasfield 
Hardcover: 224 pages 
Publisher: Welcome Books (September 27, 2011) 
Language: English 
ISBN-10: 1599621045 
ISBN-13: 978-1599621043 
Amazon: Gay in America