In 1969, Lorri Ungaretti was a student at Lincoln High School, and her brother, John, was at UC Davis. John was gay but very quiet about it; only their mother and a few friends knew. But then he learned that Time magazine wanted to print his letter to the editor written in response to a short opinion piece in the magazine. In his letter, John said that he was homosexual and disagreed with some of what Time had written.


Lorri talked about the original article and John’s letter; John telling his sister, father, stepmother, and grandparents that he was gay; and the 100 letters he received from around the world. Things were quite different for gay people in 1969, and this is a simple story about a very brave young man.