About eight years ago, I made a trip to the doctor to have an EKG done, because I was concerned that I might be inadvertently following in the footsteps of my father, who had suddenly died of a heart attack. I was right around the same age he was when he had his first heart attack, and his sudden death with the second one, over a decade later, made me a bit paranoid.
At the doctor's office, I remember being concerned that my then wife would be worried if I brought her into the room with me for the exam. So, instead, I chose to bring my mother into the room and asked my wife to wait in the lobby.
When the doctor came in, I introduced my mom and told him that my wife, of three years, was in the lobby. He looked at me, clearly puzzled. The next thing I knew, I was educating this doctor about domestic partnership and explaining that even though our marriage wasn't considered legal, it was my firm belief that, with as much as I paid for our ceremony and reception, I had legitimately bought and paid for the words “married” and “wife.”
Once that was clear, we moved on to the question and answer period of the exam, where he went down a list of standard questions including the date of my last period, if I was pregnant, how much I smoke, etc. After what seemed like a list of about 40-plus questions, suddenly he stopped and just looked at me.
Thirty seconds of crickets later, I said, “What?” He looked at me, looked at my mom, looked at me, looked at my mom and looked at me again, seemingly stuck. Then, he held up the questionnaire, so that only I could see it, and pointed with his pen to the question, “How often do you have sex?”
Realizing this was a question that he believed was not something he should openly ask me in front of my mother, I laughed quietly and said, “I told you, Doc, I'm married .” And without even a split second of hesitation he replied, “Ah, okay. Once a month.”
It was at that point that he and I both realized that, regardless of sexuality, some issues truly are just universal.

See you next month!
Tina Sordellini • Managing Executive Editor
info@shemag.com