Richie: I had finished producing a TV series for seven seasons. I had sat down to create a series. I wanted to do a series about the difference between being gay when I was a teenager and what it’s like to be gay now. I wrote plot outlines. I came up with characters. I thought it would be really funny if an older gay man found himself living with a twenty-something gay, and the hilarity ensues. Just as I was trying to figure out this show, our fifteen-year-old son told us he was gay. Everything I was trying to put in the pilot was happening at our dinner table. I thought, this is not a TV show. It’s my real life. He told us, “It’s no big deal. My generation thinks it’s not a big deal.” I thought, oh, I need to tell him what a big deal it is. Being gay is the best thing about me. It’s the most important thing about me. It’s been the blessing of my life. I wanted to share that with him so he wouldn't undervalue what a gift it is. Then in 2016, Donald Trump was elected and declared war on gay people. I also had to warn him, what it takes to be a gay man in America right now. That was the impetus for the book.