Coming Out Aloft

"First of all," explains Burke, "skydivers are all pretty open. We have to be. To us, the team is like anybody else. They love a sport that we love. It's a melting pot up in that airplane."

"In the beginning it was something to get used to," says jumpmaster C.J. Parker. "There were some comments made.... But that happens any time you have a large group of people who enter a new group. It's been a learning experience for everyone."

"Spaceland has been really great," explains Grisak. "We've been having membership drives to get more people involved. We had a table set up at Rich's. Rosie and one of her friends came out and partied with us to help out."

"One guy and his wife from one of the straight teams [at Spaceland] said they want to be a part of our group," adds Larry White. "Hey, we're not discriminating. That's one of our main goals -- not to discriminate against color, religion, sex, nothing. We want everybody to be involved.

"We want to let people know that we are normal people, and normal people can skydive and go to dinner and have relationships just like everybody else.

"As far as the other groups," White continues, "there hasn't been one person to say or do anything -- and they all know we're gay. In fact, there's another guy here named Larry. And they were calling for a Larry over the loudspeaker."

Both Larrys came running.
"And then they announced over the thing, 'The gay one.' It didn't offend me, it didn't offend anybody else. Everybody has welcomed us with open arms.