Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell


Photo Credit: David Goehring

Lisa Tillmann travels with Matt Moretti, her friend since 1996, to his hometown of Tremaine, Massachusetts. Though Matt describes his family as “loving and caring,” he’s been away for seven years. The pair visit Matt’s old neighborhood, church, and schools, and Lisa interviews three of his siblings, one (Elisabeth) with a same-sex orientation and two (Paul and Ashley) with a different-sex orientation. The piece Lisa writes reveals that the ways the Morettis communicate—and don’t—about sexual orientation reflect how they learned to interact as members of an alcoholic family. When Lisa shares a draft with Matt’s siblings, the revelations so provoke them that they nearly spike the project.