Clik here to view.
Give Me a Prehistoric Man
When I was a kid in the 1960s and 1970s, my church hated "evil-lution" almost as much as Roman Catholics. It was not only a big lie, it was the source of every modern problem from hippies to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Converting the Fundamentalist Boy
Upstate, September 2010The Freshman came into Sociology of Religion class ready for a fight. I knew all the signs.He was Hispanic, tall, broad-shouldered, with short dark hair, dark skin, and a round...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mad Magazine: Cynicism, Guilt, and Homophobia
When I was a kid in the 1960s, we were expected to never question teachers, parents, the church, or the government. Their answers were always right, their decisions always fair. To suggest the tiniest...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hippolytus, the Gay Charioteer of Greek Myth
In Greek myths, Hippolytus, a chariot devotee (similar to today's auto racers), was the son of Theseus (who killed the Minotaur). After he rejected the advances of his stepmother Phaedra, she told...
View ArticleClik here to view.
My Ex-Boyfriend Fred's Nine Lovers
We don't live just one life. We may be "only dancing on this Earth for a short while," but during that short while, we are many different people. We move to new cities, and take on new jobs. Friends...
View ArticleClik here to view.
12 Things to Like About Autumn
It's only the 30th of August, still summer according to the sidereal calendar, but in the real world calendar, classes have started, so it's autumn. My favorite season of the year.1. Everything is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fred and the Icelandic Photographer
New York, August 2000"Boomer, guess what!" Fred said breathlessly, in those days before texting overtook the telephone. "I got a new job, in Bemidji, Minnesota!"Last I heard, my ex-boyfriend Fred and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Chaim Potok: The Gay Jewish Romeo and Juliet
During my junior year in high school (1976-77), our English teacher assigned My Name is Asher Lev (1972), the novel by Chaim Potok about a Hasidic Jewish boy torn between his artistic talent and his...
View ArticleClik here to view.
14 Beefcake Stars of "Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23"
Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23 premiered in April 2012, oddly following the family-friendly Modern Family. After 7 episodes, it was renewed for a second season, but episodes were shown out of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Confusing Children and Angels: Laugh-In
When I was a kid in the 1960s and 1970s, my friends and I hated variety shows: Ed Sullivan, Red Skelton, Carol Burnette, Andy Williams, Glen Campbell (left). They were old, square, has-beens. But...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Boy Who Liked Grandpas
Plains, August 2016I put "No Daddy fetishes" in my online hookup profile, because otherwise I would get pick-up lines like "Daddy, I've been bad! Punish me!" every five seconds.Daddy fetishists are...
View ArticleClik here to view.
O.J Simpson and Kato Kaelin: a Gay Connection?
O.J. Simpson was a celebrity of the 1970s and 1980s, a football player turned actor.I didn't know him from his football days, of course, but I saw him in movies like The Cassandra Crossing (1978),...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Body Shaming, Bullying, and Just Being Mean
You grow up an outsider, constantly excluded, demeaned, and ridiculed for being gay. You're called names, yelled at, told that you're a sinner, a pervert, a monster striving to destroy the society, as...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Gay Adventures of Jerry Lewis
When I was growing up, every summer and sometimes at Christmastime, we drove 300 miles from Rock Island, Illinois to Garrett, Indiana, to visit my parents' family. We usually stayed with my Aunt Nora,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
60 Movies I Will Never See
There are 6 basic emotions, 1 positive (happiness), 3 negative (sadness, anger, and disgust), and 2 which could be either (surprise, fear) The function of a movie, book, song, or other work of art is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
My Hookup with the Egyptian God and His Boy
San Francisco, April 1997There wasn't much street cruising going on in West Hollywood, since everyone drove everywhere. But San Francisco was a walking city, so you could easily stop and talk to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Green Acres: Gay Siblings on 1960s TV
One of the hayseed comedies of the 1960s, Green Acres (1965-71) was nearly as bereft of beefcake and bonding as Petticoat Junction. It was a fish-out-of-water sitcom about a big city lawyer, Oliver...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hugh O'Brian and the Gay 1950s
Hugh O'Brian, who died yesterday, was one of the few beefcake actors of the 1950s not discovered by gaydar-proficient talent agent Henry Willson -- although he was rumored to be gay. He just wanted to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
I Share Fred and His Boyfriend in His Parents' House
Rock Island, December 1980In mid-December, just before classes end at Augustana, my ex-boyfriend Fred calls me from Omaha. "Are you free Christmas night?" "Sure -- my family celebrates on Christmas...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Just Shoot Me: Buddy Bonding and Snark
Beginning with The Mary Tyler Moore Show, many, many sitcom have featured a gung-ho female journalist paired with a stick-in-the-mud male boss. Usually a romance develops. But not in Just Shoot Me...
View Article