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Freedom from Want: Norman Rockwell's Parody of the Nuclear Family
The iconic Thanksgiving scene is Norman Rockwell's Freedom from Want, originally published in the Saturday Evening Post on March 6, 1943. It was part of a series called the Four Freedoms, based on...
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10 Election Night Hookups
Rock Island is staunchly Democrat, and my parents were the most staunchly Democrat of all. I spent my childhood going to election rallies and passing out bumper stickers, and falling asleep on...
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The Mystery of Armie Hammer Solved
Armand Douglas Hammer, aka Armie Hammer (1986-), who played the Winkelvoss Twins in Social Network, Tonto to Johnny Depp's Lone Ranger, Illya Kuryakin to Henry Cavill's Man from U.N.C.L.E., and Clyde...
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Turning Japanese for the Romanian Twink
West Hollywood, November 8, 1988. It was Election Day: George Bush, the Vice President of homophobia for the last eight years, vs. Michael Dukakis, who hated gay people and was a fierce opponent of gay...
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Marvel's Agents of SHIELD: Lots of Beefcake, One Fleeting Gay Character
Agents of SHIELD (2013) is a tv adaption of the Marvel comics series, produced by Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Joss Whedon.SHIELD stands for Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics...
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Gary Kasper: Forgotten Man-Mountain of the 1980s
Born in 1958 in Los Angeles, the 6'4", 245 lb Gary Kasper was a high school football player, junior All-American coach, wrestler, and fitness expert before he hit Hollywood.It was the era of the...
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The 2016 Presidential Election
I'm going to have to spend the next four years explaining to all my European friends why we elected a racist, misogynistic, homophobic, Islamophobic, incompetent bully. Only one explanation: the...
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Christopher Atkins, Gay Icon
Why is Christopher Atkins a gay icon? To the best of my knowledge, none of his characters have been gay, although he did have a part in It's My Party (1995), about a gay man (Gregory Harrison) with...
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I Shag Oscar the Irish Bodybuilder and His Twink Boyfriend
Philadelphia, November 6th, 2012Election Night. Following my tradition of Election Night Hookups, I went out to Woody's, an enormous twink bar with nonstop cruising. There was a surprisingly large...
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Four Flamboyant Guys Roaming the Galaxy: "Red Dwarf"
Red Dwarf is the second-funniest science fiction series of all time, after Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. There have been 11 seasons since it premiered in 1988, plus a feature film and an avalanche...
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How We Survived the Homophobic World of the 1980s
A few days ago, we discovered that over 40% of the U.S. population believe that all Mexicans are rapists and all Muslims are terrorists, that African-Americans are inferior, that the handicapped should...
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Charles Addams/The Addams Family
The 1950s was obsessed with marriage and reproduction. Movies, tv programs, presidential speeches, school textbooks, and Sunday morning sermons all pushed the heterosexual nuclear family with...
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The Best Friend of Terry the Homophobe
Rock Island, July 1989I'm in no mood to be back in Rock Island: I just got back to West Hollywood after my semester in Turkey, and I just started dating an amazing guy. If I'm gone for too long,...
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Forgotten Gay Actor Antony Hamilton
When I was living in West Hollywood, half the guys I met were aspiring actors, and the other half had dated or hooked up with actors. If you were gay and in show biz, I knew you, or had met you, or...
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Is My Nephew Gay?
Indianapolis, September 2016My sister and her husband moved to Indianapolis shortly after they married. Terry worked as a car salesman, then ran a car detailing service, while Tammy worked as a...
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A Different World: Angst and Beefcake at a Black College
Different World (1987-1993) was a spin-off of The Cosby Show (1984-1992), the blockbuster warmedy about a African-American family in a world where poverty and racism were topics of history lessons,...
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Drake's Hookup with Tony Curtis
San Francisco, November 1996Gay parties are different in San Francisco than they were in West Hollywood: dinner is out at a restaurant, not at someone's apartment, and there are no celebrity dating...
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Circus World: Beefcake and Bonding on the Flying Trapeze
My grandmother took me to a circus once. Creepy clowns, leering acrobats, a lady in a stripper costume riding an elephant. Bleachers full of scared little kids and bored older kids whose grandparents...
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Kevin the Vampire's Hookup with the Devil
San Francisco, November 1996It's my 36th birthday. David, Drake the Teddy Bear Artist, Corbin the Gym Rat, Kevin the Vampire, and a few other guys have gathered in an Ethiopian restaurant. We're...
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Mario David: Bodybuilder Turned Gay-Vague Comedian
What is it with bodybuilders and comedy? It's as if film directors are deliberately trying to mask the erotic potential of muscles through jokes and pratfalls.Case in point: Mario David (1927-1996), a...
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