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Fall 1991: Outing a Medieval Knight
Ever since my junior high boyfriend Dan and I plotted to escape to Saudi Arabia, I have been plagued by sudden obsessions with countries or historical periods: Russia, China, Renaissance Italy, the...
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Little Brown Koko: Teaching Tolerance Through Racism
When I was a kid in the 1960s, I never saw anyone who was Black, except at the Longview Park Pool in the summertime, and when I visited my Cousin George in South Carolina. Over 20% of the population...
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James Marsden: Former Teen Idol Plays Gay, with Kissing and Everything
You don't need a face shot to distinguish James and Jason Masden. James has a more ripped physique, which he tends to display with constant semi-nude scenes, plus full nudity in Death at a Funeral...
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Earle C. Liederman: The Grandfather of Modern Bodybuilding
Everyone's heard of bodybuilding entrepreneur, Charles Atlas, who sold thousands of "dynamic tension" resistance-training regiments from the 1930s through the 1960s with the comic strip ad, "The Insult...
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Summer 1983: Viju and Cousin Joe Hit It Off
In May 1983, at the end of my first year of graduate school in Bloomington, my sister Tammy graduated from Rocky High. She was the baby of my father's family, so it was a big deal, and everyone would...
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Shock-headed Peter: Castration and Gay Panic in a German Children's Story
When I was in Germany a few years ago, my friend Doc took me to a restaurant called the Struwwelpeter Apfelweinwirtschaft (The Slovenly Peter Apple Wine Tavern). Its logo was a boy with wild blond hair...
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Kevin Zegers: Former Teen Idol is Trans-Friendly
Only a few teen idols have achieved such fan accolades that there are websites devoted to detailed descriptions of every scene of every movie, tv, and theatrical appearance. Luke Halpin of Flipper....
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Charlton Comics: More Gay Subtexts than Casper
When I was a kid in the 1960s, my staple was Harvey comics: gay-vague pacifist Casper the Friendly Ghost saving the world from science-fiction threats. I liked the Gold Key jungle comics, Little Lulu,...
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Summer 1971: How to Catch a Fisherman
When I was a kid in the 1970s, whenever we visited my relatives, my Uncle Paul (of the Naked Man in the Peat Bog) or Cousin Joe (whom I saw naked when I was seven) or Cousin George would announce "I'm...
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The Nutcracker: Men in Tights
When I was a kid, our church forbade movies, theater, carnivals, circuses -- basically anything that had a plot. And my working-class parents disapproved of anything "long hair." So ballet and opera...
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Fall 1991: My Date with the Country-Western Star
I spent the fall 1991 semester in Nashville, where I studied Hebrew at Vanderbilt Divinity School, taught English at a state college, outed a Medieval knight...and dated a country-western singer. At...
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Teen Idol Cagatay Ulusoy: 10 Things You Should Know
1. He's a 23-year old former teen idol from Istanbul.2. Turkey is one of the most-gay friendly countries in the Middle East, which means that most people are no more homophobic than your average...
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General Whitman and his Cold War Boyfriend
When I was a kid in the 1960s, my working-class parents hated books. Comic books were suspect enough -- but full-sized books would brainwash me into believing atheism and evil-lution, keep me away...
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Viva Las Vegas: Elvis and Cesare Danova Find Each Other
Viva Las Vegas (1964) is a comedy-drama produced during the height of early-1960s cool, when Vegas still meant gambling, booze, and the Rat Pack. And at the height of the 1960s Italian craze. How...
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The Kid from "A Christmas Story"
Even though 30 years have passed, Peter Billingsley is still know as the kid from A Christmas Story (1983). You know -- the bespectacled 9-year old whose only Christmas wish is "a Red Ryder BB gun...
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10 Gay Things You Didn't Know about "White Christmas"
1. White Christmas is not about Christmas. It's a backstage musical that just happens to end at Christmastime. Backstage movies were well-known for gay subtexts.2. The songs are by Irving Berlin, who...
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Spring 1981: Handcuffed by My Professor
Everybody at Augustana College knew about geology professor Dr. Burton and his Handcuff Parties (I changed his name and department). Every quarter during finals week, he invited the students from his...
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Why You Should Visit South Dakota Next August
In the summer of 1996, shortly after Lee and I moved to San Francisco, my parents decided to sell their house in Rock Island and spend their retirement years in their old hometown in Indiana. That...
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Gay Connections of the "Christmas Story" Kids
A Christmas Story (1983) is not just about Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) lusting after a rifle and a lady-leg lamp. There are other plots and gag bits, other actors who are forever known as for their...
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The Middle: Axl in Underwear, No Gay People
I've been watching The Middlesince it premiered in 2009. It's a striking contrast to Modern Family, which comes on ABC shortly afterwards: two "family sitcoms," but the families are rich/poor, big...
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