A Survivor's List: Things to Do Before You Die

Surviving is a talent many people pick up quickly, when necessary. As a new year approaches, we asked inspiring LGBT survivors to tell us what they would do if next year were their last. Their bucket lists may surprise you and provide inspiration for making your 2013 as kick-ass as possible.

BY Neal Broverman

October 31 2012 4:00 AM ET

“Because of my long-term relationship with HIV, I’ve done my best to live every year as if it could be my last, although now I try to balance that with the possibility that I might live until 90. Happily, I would not have significant regrets. I would continue to write, to speak, and teach. However, I would be much more extravagant in certain areas: I would fly first-class and stay in the best hotels during the extended weeks that I would use to travel to certain of my favorite spots, a beach in Brazil, a rice paddy in Bali—and some places I have not yet been to in Asia and Africa. I would rent a villa in Tuscany and invite my favorite people as guests. I might get married!” —Robert Levithan, psychotherapist and author of The New 60: Outliving Yourself and Reinventing a Future, and a columnist who writes as “The Ethical Slut”