‘They had been together for 21 years. They’re telling Margot, Gordon’s mum, that they’re about to appear in a Valentine’s Day issue of the local newspaper’

I took this shot in 1987, when I was living in Boston, Massachusetts. It was the middle of the Aids crisis, and there was an atmosphere of fear as more people fell victim to the virus. The year before, I had decided to create At Home With Themselves, a series in which I captured the lives of same-sex couples in photographs and interviews. That’s how I met Gordon and Jim, the couple shown here next to Gordon’s mother Margot in their home in San Diego.

By the mid-1980s, and with the advent of Aids, there was a backlash against the growing openness towards homosexuality. There were all sorts of misconceptions about how you could contract the disease: from toilet seats, or sharing an ice-cream cone. The press played into stereotypes, particularly the idea that gay men were very sexually promiscuous. But that period got me thinking about the prevalence, variety and longevity of gay and lesbian relationships. My ambition was to make pictures that gave dignity to gay love. I wanted to create images that moved people in a visual and psychological sense.