These was my . . .

reaction upon learning that Allen Ginsberg was gay - lol.

I had no idea!  Totally caught off guard.  I just had no idea.  

I was reading the book that I'm holding [in the photo] and there I learned that he was gay.

Allen Ginsberg one of the famous artists of the Beats [generation]

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_Generation) in the 1950s.

I had a professor back then who was pretty close to these guys.  Mr. Bell was his name, he was the one who introduced me to the Beat writers.