“This photo is of Tom, my boyfriend of six years, and me at the top of Lion’s Head in Cape Town, with Table Mountain right over our shoulder. What the picture didn’t capture is my heart pounding and my body dripping with sweat from the hike! We went to South Africa for my 40th birthday with 18 of my friends and family, straight and gay. We visited the Soweto township, safaried in Krueger National Park, swam with the sharks in Shark’s Alley, sailed the African Queen on the Zambezi River, and bungee-jumped at Victoria Falls! The trip made me realize how small the human race is to the whole circle of life on this planet.” —from reader Bill Arthur in Miami

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