We Met On Gay.com

A few weeks ago, we celebrated our four-year anniversary together. It also marked the anniversary of having met on Gay.com. In the four years we’ve been together, a lot has changed. We’ve moved cross-country from Boston to San Francisco, we’ve both had to start new jobs, and we’re currently raising an amazing 5-year-old son named Zachary.

What makes our story unique is that we not only met on Gay.com, but we realized after chatting for several hours in a local chat room something pretty remarkable: We actually lived next door to each other!

We were both coming from different places that night back in 2004 when we signed on to Gay.com. We had each moved into the city just a few months earlier. PJ had come out relatively recently and Neil had just gotten out of a long-term relationship. Neither of us expected to meet someone who would end up being such an important part of the other’s life and a perfect match both physically and emotionally.

We still remember the initial chat conversation quite clearly and constantly tease each other about the initial banter and flirtations. PJ was intrigued by the line in Neil’s chat profile “What every man wants but shouldn’t have.” PJ’s interest was piqued by this seemingly confident line, which of course was coupled with some sexy pictures that Neil had recently completed as part of a professional photo shoot. It turns out that the quote was not as overly confident as it appeared; it was actually a quote from one of Neil’s favorite Joan Crawford movies. However, PJ was intrigued, so he did something he rarely did since he had signed up on Gay.com just months earlier: He sent a private message to Neil.

Neil liked PJ’s sporty pictures -- one of him playing baseball and one playing basketball -- and normal chatting began. Within an hour or two, it was clear there was mutual interest. The real twist came when we started to ask each other where the other lived.

Do you live in the city? Yes, in Boston . . . Me too.

What neighborhood do you live in? The south end . . . Me too!

What street do you live on? Tremont Street . . . Um, me too!!

Really? What block do you live in? Between Dartmouth and Clarendon. Hmmm . . . me too!!!

This is crazy! Is the street number odd or even? Odd number… Okay, this is crazy . . . me too!!!!

We eventually saw the amazing coincidence of this and finally exchanged our addresses and discovered that we not only lived next door to each other, but that our apartments were actually side-by-side and that we were probably only separated by a few feet of brick and plaster.

Of course, at this point, it was getting late. While this may have been a convenient excuse to go next door and really get to know each other, we didn’t do that. Instead, within a few days, we eventually saw each other outside our buildings and shortly thereafter, went on our first date. About a year later, we moved in together. About two years after our initial encounter on Gay.com, we moved cross-country to San Francisco. It’s been four years since we first met on Gay.com and we definitely know where each other live now.

Did you meet on Gay.com? Tell us about it now!