On July 4, 1988 Paul Monette met Stephen Kolzak, a Harvard graduate who was a casting director in Hollywood, working most notably for the television series "Married with Children" and the classic and beloved "Cheers."

As a young man, Kolzak worked or volunteered for the Democratic party, as shown in a photograph here. When he suffered from AIDS, he joined prominently in a protest in Washington, D.C. at the Federal Drug Administration. The Reagan and first Bush administrations in general were silent on AIDS. This protest was to force the FDA to release new and experimental drugs that those with AIDS felt might prolong their lives. The group's storming the federal agency later inspired Monette to write one of his most famous protest poems, "Stephen at the FDA," shown in manuscript elsewhere in the exhibit.

Snapshots of Kolzak's and Monette's travels together and videos of their antics show a happier side of their loving relationship, as do notes passed back and forth between them, notes Monette kept in this Louis Sherry box.

Kolzak's death on September 19, 1990, when he was 37, brought Monette another group of deeply felt letters of sympathy from dozens of persons, for example, this note from lesbian novelist Elisabeth Nonas: "I'm sorry for your loss. And also sorry and angry that life has become such a battlefield."

Stephen Kolzak as a young man

Letter of condolence from Elisabeth Nonas to Paul Monette