Out on the Web

Bohnett also manages his own portfolio through his investment company, Baroda Ventures LLC, and sits on the boards of directors of NCR Corp. in Dayton, Ohio, Stamps.com in Santa Monica, NetZero Inc. in Westlake Village and several other privately held Internet ventures -- the future of e-commerce in their respective industries, he believes. In addition, he was named a Regents‘ Lecturer at the University of California at Los Angeles and will deliver several addresses during the 1999-2000 academic year.

Last weekend, Bohnett was honored by the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center with this year’s Rand Schrader Distinguished Achievement Award for his “remarkable and courageous record of championing gay and lesbian equality and greatly enhancing the visibility of lesbian and gay people.” His selection had nothing to do with his relationship with Schrader; rather, the two men‘s lives tracked so closely, it was simply a poetic coincidence that one would be honored in the other’s name.

“I met Randy when I was 27 years old,” Bohnett reflects, “and was very much in love with him throughout our whole time together. To receive an award named in his honor is a wonderful tribute to him, to our life together, and to the achievements I‘ve had as a result of his love and support.”

As the interview draws to an end, I realize I still have no idea why Bohnett triumphed, rather than being felled by the tragedy of AIDS or marginalized as a gay computer geek. Why you? I finally ask. What makes you different?

“I read a quote the other day by Albert Einstein,” Bohnett says. “He said that the most important question people should answer for themselves is whether or not they think the universe is benevolent. When you answer that question, everything else in your life really follows from that core belief. Do you feel there’s hope and goodness? I do!”