Firdt?

@2: sencod?

Coming across assholes..
totally awesome.

Forced fourth?

.

Sixth form.

@6: Nicely done!

Good to see FAM. I think it’s important to say Out and Proud, because there is so much pushback going on around the world. Hope all goes well in telling your family.

Benign nine

Being Australian, I'm so excited to be able to participate in this film festival for once! Only wish the exchange rate wasn't so bad...

Legs eleven ;)

I'm happy and sad to trade my in-person tickets for the online streaming kind. But at least I still have feelings!

I also don't think the loud-and-proud way of being gay is all that uniquely American. On the other hand, Canadian is kinda sorta American. My two queer kids never "came out". We talked about stuff over dinner every night, for years, and they figured themselves out. We're loud and proud.

Now that I am living in Europe, I am happy to see that HUMP! will be live streamed with a CET showing. I have also been forwarding information about the film festival to my friends here, so perhaps Savage Love and HUMP! will be even more international.

I am sadly reminded of how Mr Rogers told a gay cast member to marry a woman so that he could "have it all".

There is a perception that almost everyone is either a Brian Boitano/Brian Orser or a Rudy Galindo/Johnny Weir, missing those who follow the Jeffrey Buttle model.

"Explaining the Pandemic to my Past Self"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms7capx4Cb8&t

A very funny 3 minutes

curious @16: Hilarious. I loved it. Psst. Buy Zoom!

@Venn, did he say that? I'm super disappointed as well if that's true. I knew that the mail man character (I think?) was gay in real life and Mr. Rogers wanted him to stay in the closet publicly which is bad especially given that things weren't THAT different in the late 70s, early 80s. But I didn't know he'd gone so far as to tell him to get married? He's the same character that Mr. Rogers famously shared the foot bath with which was apparently a big deal at the time as the man was black. It surprises me that this was a big deal then?

EmmaLiz @18: The 70s were different. The bar I visited with my gay roommates had a bullet proof steel door with a peep hole, and no exterior signage. Of course, that was the US midwest and the cities were better, but even Liberace was notionally in the closet.

Mizz Liz - That is what the gay cast member has said, and he did follow the advice, marrying a woman and staying married for six years.

Mr Bar - "Suppressio veri" is one thing; "suggestio falsi" is another. "You'll have to stay closeted for us to be able to keep you in the cast," is one thing. Thinking that fitting in one's true self into spare moments that fall through the cracks of actively maintaining a false image is even close to "having it all" was a fumble even in the 1970's.

Bull, the 70s were anything goes. At least in liberated cities. Great decade, intense, profound, liberating, inquiring. Men were out of the closet big time. women too but nobody cared much about that. It was the pulse of gay liberation which shook things, and the Pill.
It was the early eighties, that the cloud arrived. I’m sure this virus is activating some old pain, it has me and I’m not a gay man.
I admired gay men during this time, when their families, the govt. and the culture were shunning them, gay men stood up and looked after each other. The intensity of brotherhood was inspiring, to me.

The first suggestion for BDSMERR is great. Surprise her with what she told him she wants. I think BDSMERR should also take this comment to heart: "I need to hear that what I am doing is what my playmate wants, not simply what she is willing to permit. It took me a while to navigate that sometimes she wants me to simply "have my way" with her." If you are not naturally dominant -- and hopefully even if you are -- there is no turn-on in doing something to a partner that they don't want. So you absolutely have to know what they want. Safewords and anti-safewords -- keep-going words -- will help too.

I have adopted "spooge" as a unisex term. After all, what's on the bed after OS sex? Spooge. Mine, his, ours? Doesn't matter, it's all spooge. (Pussy juice works too.)

Lava @21, first you say everyone accepted gay men in the 70s and in the same breath you say "their families, the govt. and the culture were shunning them." The Mister Rogers story is unfortunate but plausible. Mister Rogers was squeaky clean, one of the only scandal free straight men in history. It's not surprising, though it is disappointing, to think he may have been a prude when it came to gay rights. Through the decades, people learn.

After AIDS hit Fan, is what I was referring to. Those who contracted it were not welcomed home to die.
Before that, in the 70s, in many western cities, gay men didn’t ask anyone’s permission.

People thought HIV was like the covid19 virus, able to be transmitted thru the air. Lot of fear and homophobia combined.

Gotcha, Lava. Still though, the 70s may have been (relatively) progressive but that doesn't mean everyone was progressive in that decade. I can believe Fred Rogers was an exception. I mean we would probably describe the current decades as open minded but there are plenty of bigots about.

Guess as long as we're at it, my new favorite word for semen is going to be "Dick Snot".

People have certainly been treated worse (raising hand). Mr R reportedly was in the "Personally it doesn't make a difference" camp.

The middle 1970's were a time when one needed Gay Guides to places, but we weren't being all that actively persecuted for a short time. If one looked for musical explanations, perhaps Toni Tennille took the edge off things, as a lot of anti-gay stuff seemed to ramp up later to coincide with the peak of disco. I remember two years ago seeing online a copy of the Schlafly Report from 1978, pushing the Briggs Initiative, a ballot measure trying to rid California schools of homosexuals. The often-maligned Log Cabin Republicans came into being to oppose the initiative (though Mr Milk's leadership was central to the big swing in public opinion, support dropping by about 20% in two months), and future Pres Reagan showed some fortitude in opposing it as well, shortly before he began his Presidential quest that would court the Briggs backers.

(Side Point 1 - Modernized language, such as that in the definition, "Failed 1978 ballot initiative to ban LGBTQ+ people from teaching in California schools," should be handled with care to avoid misleading)

(Side Point 2 - I have seen promos for a series called Mrs America that appears to provide a positive look at Mrs Schlafly (portrayed by Cate Blanchett), and wonder if Ms Cute might have seen anything about the series or any account Ms B might have given of the role. I enjoyed the role of Sister Mary Ignatius back in my time, but don't know how far I'd have been able to go with real people and fawning portrayals.)

I'm struggling to remember any US celebrities who were out, proud and loud in the 1970s. Rock Hudson's story was certainly one of "suggestio falsi", and news of his gaiety made headlines when he died in the mid 1980s. In the UK, amongst musicians, being "bisexual" had a certain cachet for a while, but Queen got booed out of America in 1983 for releasing a video in drag.

That Mr. Rogers would appear on camera in 1969 having a foot bath with a black gay man speaks for itself, especially when people presumed he was gay himself.

When I’ve seen Mr Rogers, I’ve thought him a closet gay. Maybe he followed his own advice?

True fubar, there was a lot of homophobia around then. Still the men that broke thru broke thru. And it was a big deal because of what was before. Hollywood has lied forever about sexuality anyway. Still going on today.

Civil Rights too were exploding. I see it was the 50th Anniversary of the Kent State murders the other day.
Yes, the US were in the front lines. We sailed on in their wake.
I was way back from any real world gay life, a few friends at uni who were gay. In my world nobody blinked and many straight men were open to going with other men. Same with women going with other women. And gay men had the beginnings of a freedom they had not known before. Was important in the process of where we are now, same sex marriage legalised around the world. Boomers forced that door to open. To be public to have gay bars and baths and other open meeting places.

Like that song from ‘Oklahoma’. “ I’d liked to say a word for the boomers...” another time, another virus.

Lava @32, universities have long been far to the left of the general population in myriad ways. Politically, sexually. They are a safe environment for young people to experiment sexually before going back into the closet, or realising that they are indeed straight. Young minds eager to learn are expected to be open. This cannot be seen as a microcosm of the world at large.

I love how sensitive the Trumpettes are. Boo hoo they whine like their little master.

"Thank you for reading and I'm sorry my little parenthetical hurt your precious fee-fees, you lil' MAGA snowflake you. No wait. I'm not sorry. To borrow a phrase: fuck your feelings. And fuck your president. And fuck you."

I give it a 9. Had you addressed the target as MAGAt it would have been a 10.