Re the Davies comment in #1

Homophobia is experienced by both heterosexuals and homosexuals.

Heteros’ heads are so full of crap about gays and lesbians fed to them by parents, peers, publications and the “priesthood” is it any wonder they “fear” homos? Of course, they don’t actually fear the person… they fear the image they’ve been fed… much like many “believers” fear the Devil… you know a big, red bull with horns and cloven hooves that’ll throw you into the fires of Hell to burn forever (can you imagine what damage is likely to result to the developing mind of a child by having this garbage pounded into them?

Many heterosexual individuals, perhaps understandably, cannot even imagine “doing it” with a person of the same sex and so what they’ve been told must be true. Dirty. Diseases. Disgusting.

Homosexuals don’t come from another planet. For the most part, unless I’ve missed something, homosexuals come from and are raised by… heterosexuals! Surprise!

So I must assume “homos” have been bombarded with the same balderdash about gays and lesbians as everyone else. If you were homosexual and had been exposed all your life to the garbage spewed in Western society about homosexuality, do YOU think perhaps you’d have some mental/emotional issues (perhaps the guilt written about by Davies)?

I think it’s a miracle is that we have as many well balanced gays and lesbians as we do! Tell me, what intelligent and mature society DELIBERATELY attempts to emotionally cripple up to 10% of its population, not knowing in advance who the individuals might be, and then harrass, persecute and even prosecute the ones who succumb for being damaged?

Doesn’t it occur to loudmouth ignoramuses like Falwell and Robertson that their unenlightened, simple-minded prejudices might be HARMFUL… LIKE PERHAPS TO THEIR OWN SONS OR DAUGHTERS? What dweebs!

BTW, Davies, I’m not sure quite what to make of your statement “I get the sense that the top/penetrator is, as was also true then, strongly inclined to see himself as straight until quite/too late.”

Well, maybe now that I’ve read it a few times I do know what to make of it. CRAP on many levels. Any “penetrator” engaging in a homosexual sex act and who considers himself “straight” has bigger problems than just trying to sort out his sexual orientation. He’s going to have deal with his psychotic self-delusions first!

But I have known individuals who claim to have not consciously been aware they were capable of same-sex emotional and sexual relationships until much later in life… one fellow was widowed when in his 60s and only then did he discover, to his own surprise, he was quite capable of establishing an emotionally and sexually fulfilling relationship with another man. I understand many widowed women establish and maintain same-sex “companionships” in later life, and many of these include intimate relationships. Betcha they forgot to tell you all this in school and/or church, eh? I’m not making it up. It’s in the research literature.

But all of this wrangling (pun intended) in our culture about gay/straight is so tiresome and unnecessary. It’s about time we, the society, grew up and focused on the many very REAL and serious problems facing us.

WHO CARES whether it’s Adam and Eve or Adam and Steve? Whose bloody business is it who any other person “lies with?” Each of us is responsible ONLY for OUR OWN interactions and the sooner everyone gets their noses OUT of everyone else’s business, and their heads OUT of the sand, the better off EVERYONE will be.

I’m so sick of people who think they’ve been appointed by God as guardian over everyone else’s beliefs and behaviors. If I was King for a Day, I’d sentence these homophobic nitwits to be locked in a darkened room where all the episodes of “Will & Grace,” alternating with “Queer As Folk,” were showing on a large screen TV until they agreed to get an education based on FACT rather than fiction and fear.

Nationally, there has been a remarkable shift toward acceptance of homosexuality. However, my former AIDS clients evidenced often a deep sense of guilt. And the one character’s slowness in realizing his own sexuality and his love for a man is little different from what it very often was 50 years ago.I get the sense that the top/penetrator is, as was also true then, strongly inclined to see himself as straight until quite/too late. A powerful movie and one that should make everyone empathize with the two men and their wives and children.Surely we all saw the one character’s murder as like the Shepard murder in Wyoming. We have a long way to go.I’d like to be optimistic.