Michael Shugert loves music. As a child, he learned to play piano by ear. "I do piano therapy and hospitals," Shugert said as he sat behind the 88 keys performing a lilting rendition of "Your Song" by Elton John and Bernie Taupin."And during COVID I had a series of piano concerts in my driveway for the neighbors. 5 o'clock on a Sunday to get people away from the national news," he said.Music helped the Sacramento man all through his life; the tough times, the pain and the trauma."I was a tormented kid as a teen," Shugert said. "Because people were picking on me and I didn't know why I always knew I was different, but I didn't have a label for it."Shugert grew up in an era when being a gay man had all kinds of labels, many of them derogatory. Even harder was being a gay man in the U.S. Air Force. Working as a medic in the Vietnam War would have been tough for anyone. Serving as a gay man, long before "don't ask, don't tell" was a military policy was even harder."I'm not saying a positive attitude is gonna pull everybody through," Shugert said. "But it, I think can help. And it's always been easier for me to go down that road than to be negative about adversities that have been put in front of me."Those adversities were not from serving in the military. The hardest battles for him were yet to come. In the early 1980s, Shugert fell ill, and the disease was new."The bad news is you've tested positive for gay-related immune different deficiency, which was a precursor to HIV and AIDS," Shugert said recounting the name doctors rolled off for his disease. "And you will be dead in a year ... I shared it with three or four of my best friends. I held out for a few months before telling my family because I knew they would be devastated."Yet far from giving up, Shugert fought. He fought for his community, talking to kids in schools all throughout San Francisco about being gay; about having HIV. He appeared in the Wall Street Journal in 1990 talking about teaching about homosexuality in schools.Shugert diffused violence by breaking down the stereotypes. He recounted his experience talking with school kids, adding, "I never thought how that 바카라 게임 웹사이트� how bullying 바카라 게임 웹사이트� might affect them. But now I do." He did all this while still fighting the disease. He would take handfuls of medication a day, some so new and experimental he said the medication itself nearly killed him. Yet even then, he refused to give in, saying, "I will prove you wrong, sir. I'm not going to give into this disease. And I never did. I always had a positive attitude and took really good care of myself."As he fought, Shugert found love, eventually meeting his husband. He said they met at a bar in San Francisco, a man who was 19 years younger than himself, describing him as a "very interesting man.""Why would he want to love somebody so flawed? And he said, 'Honey, we're in this together. We're going to fight this,'" Shugert said.Fight he did.Moving to Sacramento, Shugert became a caterer, taking his positive attitude to another medium 바카라 게임 웹사이트� food 바카라 게임 웹사이트� with the support of his partner. However, his husband died from cancer of the tongue and lungs. "I miss him like crazy. His spirit is ever-present around here, ever-present," Shugert said.The struggles didn't end there. Shugert is a two-time cancer survivor himself, but his spirit remains bright. He found love again, seeking solace working with his partner in the yard and finding joy in the freedom of riding motorcycles together.Looking back, he knows he spent his life as an openly gay man breaking down stereotypes, educating and changing the lives of the kids who heard him speak, touching the lives of everyone around him."I've come this far," Shugert said. "I still have a few years ahead of me. Hopefully at least 20 or so. I'm 70 now. And I've been through a lot. I've accomplished a lot, but I have more to do."More to do even as he has left others behind. From 1985 to 1995 Shugert lost 38 friends to AIDS, including a partner. He is one of only two survivors from a support group of 18.