Variation on a Theme, Book 7
Copyright© 2026 by Grey Wolf
Chapter 15: Celebrations and Worries
Thursday, August 7, 1986
Dr. Halloran called us up to the front about an hour into class, saying, “Today, we’re covering a topic that’s been a big thing on campus for the past few years, and is important around the world: the rights of gay people. Or, formally, homosexuals. We are lucky enough to have some experts in our class, and I wanted to take advantage of that. Our first speaker will be Paige Seiler. If any of you watch ‘60 Minutes’, you might recognize Paige from an episode at the end of June.”
Students looked at each other. It seemed like none of them did.
Paige smiled, waved, and said, “This is a comparative politics class. I’m not an expert on other countries, but I know there are huge differences. Mostly, it’s ... look at where we were a few years ago. The law said certain types of sex were illegal. People who went out with their loved ones risked fights, whether physical or legal. Proms and other school events were closed to same-sex couples. A&M fought tooth and nail against having a club that served gay students. And that’s only a short list of issues.”
She smiled and said, “Today, much of that has changed. And those changes, by and large, have come from ordinary people challenging the system. That’s the political part of it. The comparative part is ... well. Our system is relatively welcoming to ordinary people challenging the system. That’s true in some countries, but not in others. In a theocracy, what the religion says goes. And it usually seems that the religion says what the leaders say it says. If some of the people I’ve known were the leaders, I would be illegal. Persecuted, locked up, stoned, burned at the stake ... whatever.”
She gestured to a map, pointing vaguely at the Far East and Russia.
“The same is true for authoritarian countries. What the leader says goes. And a lot of authoritarians find it easy to rally the common people against gay people. We’re a fairly small minority. Different. A lot of straight people find us to be ‘weird’ or ‘unnatural’ or whatever. Minority groups are easy to pick on.
“In general, that means the more mature, more classically liberal democracies are the countries with the best record on gay rights. But even there, it can be a struggle. And we’re, by definition, a minority group. This is where people like Steve — my fiancée’s brother, for those taking notes...”
She got a laugh out of that.
“ ... are so helpful. Come on up, Steve!”
She hugged me as I got to the front, then headed to her seat.
“Hi! I’m Steve Marshall. If that name is familiar at all — and it might not be — it’s because I’ve somehow managed to get quoted more often than seems reasonable as being a straight supporter of gay rights. The whole thing started when my friend Lizzie Vinton ran for Student Council. I was running, too, for a different office. I know — no one cares about Student Council. But that turns out to be politics, right? And her opponent attacked her on moral grounds. Is being gay a sign of immorality? I didn’t think so. Her opponent did. We wound up having to fight the issue up to the School Board, which supported us.”
I smiled and said, “If you’ve heard of Lizzie, it’s because you were paying attention three years ago. Lizzie, and her now-wife Janet, went to our prom their senior year, a year after that election. Thanks to interesting circumstances and a lot of support, some of which traces back to the election, they’re the first gay couple in the US to attend their prom without a court battle, police, lawyers, and so forth. And, thanks to being in the right place at the right time, I wound up in the national press.”
Grinning, I continued, saying, “Not my goal, but it worked. But it connects right back to politics. President Reagan wound up taking a comment I made in the coverage and putting it in a speech. Sometimes, supporting gay rights can be politically expedient, particularly now. It costs very little to simply say, ‘Let’s not treat these people worse than everyone else.’ And sometimes elections are won on the margins.
“So ... again, comparative politics. We’re starting to see openly gay politicians in some countries. We’re also seeing other countries going all in on the torches and pitchforks. For a group of people who are, statistically, a small and pretty innocuous group, it’s fascinating to see how this drives politics in either direction. Some people have a wildly outsized reaction to gayness.”
I shrugged and finished up, saying, “Both of us will be happy to answer questions, now or in the future. I’m straight, even if I’ve sometimes dressed like Dr. Frank-N-Furter at showings of ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’.”
That got the laugh I was hoping for.
“Paige is not, as she said. My former debate partner? Not straight. Other friends? Some straight, some not. To me, it doesn’t matter. I care a lot more that someone finds the person they love than what gender that person is. But I’m living in a relatively liberal democracy. If I were in another country, I might have put myself at risk by standing up for gay people.”
We got a few questions. None of them were overly interesting, but that’s how it goes sometimes. It really was a bit of a stretch making us relevant to this class, but that’s also how it goes. Dr. Halloran was happy, and that was plenty.
We got a few grumpy looks, too. Not a lot, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time. I wasn’t overly worried. ‘Haters gonna hate’, and there were plenty of ways for the haters to become aware of us.
Friday, August 8, 1986
I got a non-critical page from Michael during class. When I got home, I called him back.
“Steve! Got a bunch of news for you!”
“Go!”
He chuckled.
“First, the deal with Bob Swem is done, and we already have the production team bringing up the Tandems. It should be a big improvement, albeit with growing pains.”
“Glad to hear it!”
“Now, for the bigger news. And it’s big! We not only hit the $100 million milestone, we blew through it. $108 million for the quarter!”
“Amazing news!”
He chuckled softly. “Two years ago, I reported one million in quarterly revenue. One hundred to one in two years. Sales, not profit, but that’s still absolutely outstanding, I think.”
“Me, too! For one thing, you have to be an entirely different organization to support one hundred million quarterly. And we are.”
“Exactly! There’s more good news. We had to reallocate less profit to 386, which means quarterly profit hit $15 million,” he said.
“Incredible!”
“Like I said a while ago, we’re having a big party for hitting $100 million. Hilton ballroom, cake, appetizers, champagne. Everyone’s invited, and we’ll have some sort of fill-in for people who can’t go. Shift work, support, and so forth. They’ll get some sort of goodie, too. ‘I missed the big party but got this cool thing.’ They’re working on it. And, by ‘they,’ I mean Alice and her planning team.”
“Alice will knock it out of the park, I’m sure,” I said.
“Me, too! The party will be Friday, the 29th, at three. As far as I know, that time is free for you.”
“Should be totally free.”
“I’d say you can bring dates, but the four of you are all employees anyway, officially,” he said.
“I might actually bring a friend,” I said, thinking about it. “Someone who ... well. This is premature, but I want to let her meet some of your engineers. Internship, maybe hire. Now ... I need to be completely clear on this. I’m just introducing a friend to interesting people. Not only am I not asking for favors, I’m asking for no favors. Everyone involved in any decision-making should have zero pressure.”
“I get that!” he said, chuckling. “We can make that happen. No one wants to get on the wrong side of the law, or even appearances. Check with Alice. She’ll help.”
“I will,” I said.
“Next item. 386 prototypes are rolling off the line. One in forty failure rate right now. Something in the memory system is a pain to manufacture. They’re on it, and we’ll overcome it. Unless I’m surprised, we’ll be in a position to formally announce the product at some point in September.”
“Glad to hear it!”
“Andy at Intel is over the moon. We have fifteen units at Microsoft, where they’re busily porting and testing. They’re due fifteen more in a week, one hundred in two. Bill’s thrilled, too,” he said.
Then he laughed. “Who would have thought, two years ago, I’d be on a first-name basis with Andy Grove and Bill Gates? I’m talking to them weekly now. Junior member of the club, but it still counts.”
“Pretty cool, and fun for name-dropping at parties.”
He laughed even more loudly. “Says the guy who’s got President Reagan quoting him!”
“Hey, I can’t call him ‘Ronnie.’ Or even ‘Ron’ or ‘Ronald.’”
“Yet!”
I laughed. “Not expecting that one to change. But, hey, I can call you ‘Michael.’ That might be a rare thing one day.”
He snorted, then said, “That’s ... yeah. That’s a funny thing. You kinda made me think. If this IPO happens, and all ... huh. People will be weird about it.”
“The world moves on. Once upon a time, Bill and Andy — and Ronnie — were just that. Now ... not so much.”
“Yeah. Which ... again ... is weird. But I get it.”
“Anything else of note?” I asked.
“Eh...” he said. “Lee — in his capacity as interim CFO, which I’m increasingly pushing back against — is starting some work on the IPO. Very tentative, but actual work.”
“You know...” I said. “That is a board topic. We need a CFO. We need a President who’s not acting as CFO. I’m entirely sure Lee is competent and doing a good job, but he knows this isn’t supposed to continue.”
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