The title refers to the only way that newspapers at the time would allow a gay man's lover to be listed in an obituary.
The director Norman René discovered that he was HIV positive shortly before filming began but the diagnosis was kept secret. He died of AIDS on May 24, 1996 at the age of 45.
The cast members reunited in 1995 in Los Angeles to be presented with the Video Industry AIDS Action Committee's 'Longtime Companion' Award, honoring AIDS awareness, education and care.
In the poster art and DVD cover, the image of the guys walking on the beach has been altered - some might say censored. In the scene where the poster/cover image is taken from in the movie, the character "Fuzzy" is wearing an ACT-UP t-shirt that depicts two sailors kissing with the tag line that read "Read My Lips", a play on then President Bush's "Read My Lips, No New Taxes" slogan. In the cover art, the t-shirt graphic has been removed so that he only has a blank white t-shirt now. In the film scene, in contrast to the poster scene, "Fuzzy" also has shaved off his beard.
Like his character Alberto, Michael Carmine was dying of AIDS at the time that the film was made. He died on October 14, 1989, only three days after the film premiered at the Mill Valley Film Festival, at the age of 30.