How did you meet Ferd?
Brian Rosenberg: The way many gay men meet – at the
gym.
Describe your first date.
It was the evening of Father’s Day in 1993.
Fathers Day? How appropriate.
Perhaps we were destined to become dads! We went
to the movies—the original Jurassic Park—and then
for dessert. Then Ferd invited me in to his apartment.
We started to kiss, and I interrupted the moment to
tell him about my (positive) HIV-status. He actually
already knew, thanks to the gossiping of someone I had
previously considered a friend. Things got intimate and
we’ve been together ever since.
How long did you wait until you first began discussing
children?
I’ve always loved kids, especially little ones. And Ferd
was a teacher, so he especially loved kids once they
were old enough to talk and reason. But in our early
years together, our lives were spent on keeping me
healthy. Even thinking about fatherhood was a luxury
that we couldn’t afford. It wasn’t until many years
later—in the mid 2000s—that we began Ѽ