Mace is an inpatient at a group home for gay men in recovery of substance addiction.

I was not necessarily frequenting the most prestigious places in town. Basically in the gay world, if you go out and drink and you don’t hook up with someone, you go to a bookstore or place of ill repute to have sex with someone and make yourself feel better. To fill whatever void you have. Drugs, alcohol, food. It all fills something you’re missing. In my case, it was the abandonment. The lack of having a boyfriend or girlfriend or a lot of friends, I would seek that attention in other places.

That someone wanted to be around you. Even for 30 minutes, whatever it took. My sex addiction, it was just for attention.

I guess I have friends who are sex addicts, too. I didn’t really focus on that at the time. It was what I did to come out, to discover my sexuality. It was unmanageable. I got arrested in 1989, about the same time I got Hepatitis, I got arrested for indecent exposure. My mind just was not working right. It was telling me I could do these things, not get caught and be okay. I was having sex in my car. I found out in Houston you could have sex in the park, the bookstore, graveyards, you could have sex in restrooms, you could have sex driving around in Montrose. I liked that, the intrigue. You could. Not legally.

At the time I got caught I was mortified. With a gun shoved in my face. I wasn’t expecting anything to be around.