Joseph Antonelli
Joe Antonelli likes to surprise his limousine customers. While he helps plan romantic proposals with nervous soon-to-be fiancés, waits for the question to be popped and congratulates the happy couple, Antonelli tells them that their chauffeur for the evening is a gay man.
“I do it for the notion that it teaches,” he said.
The stout and spritely 70-year-old reminds his customers that we live in an age where places still prohibit people like him from getting to experience moments like these. Only three of Florida’s 67 counties have judicially ruled against the ban on same-sex marriage, which is postponed by appeals. [Edit: 1/15/15 this was the case at time of publication. As of 1/6/15, same-sex marriage is legal throughout Florida.]
Having come out in 1962 when he was a 19-year-old student at Northeastern University in Boston, Antonelli said that times since then for the gay community have improved.
“[Doctors] had us down as a sickness or illness or a disease,” he said. “It didn’t make sense. They weren’t talking about me!” Continue reading
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