Gregg and I met in a locker room. It's not what you think! But then again, if you know Gregg, maybe it was ;). He and Kevin had already together for a looong time (that's possibly ahistoric, but it's certainly what I thought at the time). After that, it's a bit of a blur: our friendship bloomed, they set me up with their houseboy, I introduced Kellen (then just a boyfriend) to them, invited them to our wedding (which they did not attend), and eventually helped welcome them (back) to Boston (at least for a time). And when they asked if I'd join them at their wedding, I didn't even think of playing tit-for-tat (well, it wasn't my *first* thought, and I think that's pretty good).

Some people feel like they've always been part of your life. This feeling was immediate when Kev, who was visiting Boston in 2014 for his Doctoral research, met Michael, a singer with Boston Gay Men's Chorus. Their friendship only became deeper and stronger after Kev and Gregg moved to Boston later that year and Kev joined the chorus in early 2015.

During an early-2010 visit to Perth, Gregg and Kev met Steve — a quiet but attentive and thoughtful gentleman — at a regular monthly gathering for gay men in a city restaurant bar. After Gregg and Kev moved to Perth at the start of 2011, Steve introduced them to his husband Graham and the four quickly became friends. As Steve once said, it was as if we were always meant to be part of each other's lives, it just took us awhile to get there. We held regular first-Friday dinners where the couples regularly reserved the — you guessed it! — first Friday of each month to catch up with each other. Of course, we hung out much more than once a month! Usually at least once a week. Their friendship deepened quickly over an early 2011 trip to Dunsborough, with good food (Squid Lips fish & chips!), good wine, shooting stars in the Western Australian sky, and fascinating conversations over a game of Xactica. Steve was endlessly amused by Kev's inability to shuffle cards!

Picture it: Aurora, Illinois, Spring 2000. A young woman begins the transition from teaching high school in the midwest to whatever the future has in store. She applies to a few colleges and corporations. She receives an interview at a school in the Pacific Northwest and heads off to Bothell, Washington. She steps out of a rental car into a parking lot of an industrial park, and enters a nondescript building where she is put through a series of interviews and experiences conducted by a handful of academics. During one of these sessions, she is questioned by a panel of faculty on a variety of topics including assessment, learning styles, student-centered teaching: Everything but the kitchen sink (which I think came up later in the fishbowl group interview). Uncomfortable in her skirt and nervous about her prospects, she scanned the room to get a sense of her inquisitors. Most of them were her age or older. Then their eyes met. Who was this man? Younger than the rest yet mature in his composure, intellect, and professionalism. Instinctively she knew that her success depended upon winning this Gregg over. She answered their questions. He smiled at one of her witty remarks and then quickly regained his equanimity. She left the room unsure of her employment chances but certain he was the most fascinating man in the room. Months later, she accepted a faculty position at the college. She and Gregg become Learning Outcome Team colleagues, teaching partners and, most importantly, friends. As employees at a new college, faculty involved themselves in many aspects of the institution beyond our teaching assignments. Gregg was no exception. He gave 200% to every endeavor from developing strategic plans, clarifying learning outcomes, and chairing "disappearing" task forces that never seemed to disappear. Just thinking about the work it did made us mere mortals tired. Then one day he appeared relaxed, content, and dare we say it, happy. What had brought about this radical change? Then we heard about Kevin — a delightful lad he had encountered in the music section of a bookstore. They shared common interests and goals and on the most basic of levels were incredibly good for one another. While we adored him as a solo act, the Gregg and Kevin duo was and still is a delightful collaboration worthy of admiration and aspiration. New groups of friends met and united. We shared dinners in Redmond, opening nights of movies, and slogs through the mud at Ani Difranco shows. Kevin made Gregg infinitely happy and so too he invigorated our lives. As Gregg's friends, we reveled in their love, companionship, and how each made the other better. On a selfish level, we appreciated Kevin keeping Gregg focused on his non-work life thereby sparing us the horror of crafting another 10-page rubric… chuckle.

Gregg and I met when we were both in graduate school at the University of Maryland in 1996. We met at a school-sponsored gay and lesbian mixer and began to hang out. As everyone knows, Gregg wants to be friends with just about everyone he meets, so having just come out only a couple years earlier, it was great timing for me to become friends with such an outgoing, driven, and smart fellow. I think some of the most memorable times as friends early on included philosophical discussions, the big parties Gregg had at his house (some of you here were at those parties), going out clubbing in DC into the early morning hours, and trying to find Mr. Right (who usually turned out to be Mr. Right-now). We even did something with a social conscience when we banded together to form the Graduate Lambda Coalition at the University of Maryland, a group devoted to the needs of the LGBTQIA+ graduate student community. I think graduate school went by so fast and was so enjoyable because of all the fun we had as friends. When I went on the job market for a faculty position and accepted an offer from the University of Washington, Gregg was eager to leave the DC area and so he joined me in the move to Seattle in summer of 1999, and Justin also joined us for the cross-county drive. It was about a year after moving there that Gregg met Kevin while Kevin was working at Barnes & Noble. He told me he met someone with a brilliant smile and cute face; he was smitten. Then I eventually met Kevin after they had gone out a few times, and that’s when his smile, cuteness, and most importantly, kindheartedness were obvious to me as well.

Kevin met Katie in June 2000, where they worked together in a the music department of a Seattle-area Barnes & Noble. Anyone who knows the two of them well, knows why they refer to each other as "peaches" — pronounced "PEEEE-CHEZZZZ" in your lowest register, like you've got a cold in mid-January. The peacheses bonded over conversations about peaches' (Katie's) new life in Seattle, and then later on when she became one of the most important supports during a difficult loss peaches (Kevin) suffered. Peaches (Katie) was also one of the first to hear about Gregg on the day he met peaches (Kevin). In short, peaches (Katie) is one of the best, most beautiful and treasured friends that peaches (Kevin) has ever known. Life wouldn't be the same without her.

G,J ∈ UMD ∩ MATH ∧ G,J ∈ 😎 ⟹ R(G,J)

G,K ∈ Seattle ∧ G,K ∈😎 ⟹ G,K ∈❤️ ⟹ R(G,K)

R ∈ {Transitive Relations} ⟹ R(J,K)

Thus: R(J,G,K)