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8 Gay Reasons to Visit New Guinea (and 5 Reasons Not To)
New Guinea is a large island north of Australia, with a population of 7 million divided between two countries: the Papuan province of Indonesia to the west, and the independent country of Papua New...
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10 Things I Hated About Summer (and Still Do)
I'm getting sick of summer: it's too hot, there's nothing to do all day but course prep for the fall, I'm gaining weight from sitting around, and there's nothing on tv at night but reruns. It was the...
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Guess Which New Teen Hunk on "Teen Wolf" is Gay
I heard that there will be three new characters on the gay-positive lacrosse team of Teen Wolf this season: One will be gay, and the others heterosexual. Can you guess the actor playing the gay...
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10 Things That Made Summer Worthwhile (Almost)
I hate the summertime. It's too hot, there's nothing to do, and the sun doesn't go down until the middle of the night. But when I was a kid growing up in Rock Island, there were a few things that...
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Jim Steranko: Escape Artist turned Comic Book Artist
Jim Steranko (born 1938) started out as a stage magician and escape artist, following in the footsteps of Harry Houdini.With a beefy physique to match.In the late 1960s, he revitalized Marvel Comics,...
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Fall 1969: My Boyfriend and I Play "Fighting Prince of Donegal"
This is the 1966 Scholastic Book Club edition of Fighting Prince of Donegal, by Robert T. Reilly.It may not look like much now, but when I was in fourth grade at Denkmann Elementary School, and it...
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The Homophobia of "Rocky and Bullwinkle"
Rocky and Bullwinkle (1959-64, and rehashed into many different series during the 1960s) is often praised as genius, a classic of animation. Amazon promises: "the wittiest, most inspired, and...
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Mr. Young: Boy Genius and Buffed Best Friend Take on High School
Many teencoms involve kids doing adult things, such as running a fashion company (True Jackson, VP) or a toy company (Some Assembly Required). Mr. Young (2011-2013), a Canadian series which sometimes...
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Summer 2005: I Escape to the Gay Haven of Slovakia
I'm not very patriotic. I grew up in an era where gay people were never, ever mentioned, but by the time I was in college, they were mentioned a lot. Every time I turned on the tv or picked up a...
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Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg and His Male Models
Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg (1783-1853) grew up in southern Denmark, and at the age of 19 enrolled at the Royal Academy of Art. He was schooled in the neoclassical tradition, but soon expressed an...
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My Friend with Benefits Learns About Gay Men
In the fall of 2005, I moved to Fairborn, Ohio, a suburb of Dayton, to take a job at Wright State University. After 20 years in gay neighborhoods, it was a shock. Dayton had only a tiny gay presence:...
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The Victorian Lusts of "Angels and Insects"
Do you want to see Douglas Henshall, the hunk of the British sci-fi series Primeval, nude and fully aroused? Are you sure? The scene is in a rather disturbing movie.Ok, then. Let's begin.William...
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The Top 10 Beefcake Murals of U.S. Post Offices
The people who deliver your Netflix envelopes and Amazon boxes were once responsible for a lot more. They brought paper copies of your bills, magazines, and even messages from friends. If you wanted...
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Alcestis: A God and his Boyfriend in Ancient Greece
During my freshman year at Augustana, I took a course in Greek Literature. We had to read The Iliad, The Homeric Hymns, and plays by Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Sophocles, and Euripides. Of course, the...
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Which of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was Gay?
I'll bet you never thought you'd be reading about the ancient Greek drama Alcestisand The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the same blog, on the same day. But my search for beefcake and bonding takes...
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Ray Mala: Eskimo Sex Symbol of the 1930s
In an era where nonwhite actors were typically portrayed as sexless sidekicks and villians, Inuit actor Mala, aka Ray Mala (1906-1952) found himself a sex symbol.Which is a problem.It's easy to find...
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The Only Penis Drawn by Willy Pogany
My first exposure to mythology came from some older books in the Denkmann library: The Adventures of Odysseus, The Children of Odin, and The King of Ireland's Son, all written by Padraic Colum and...
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Bewitched, Bewildered, and Gay
You can always distinguish between gay and heterosexual Boomer boys by asking: Bewitched orI Dream of Jeannie?Jeannie (1965-70) offered the sexist fantasy of a man whose semi-nude, subservient genie...
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Fall 2003: Straight Guys Never Figure It Out
When I was living in Florida, newcomers from the small towns (or big cities) of the vast homophobic Straight World often went crazy with joy: "You can be open here! You can be free!" They found a job...
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The Top 10 Beefcake Sights of Brno
Most visitors to the Czech Republic stick to Prague, which is admittedly one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, with more public penises than anywhere else except maybe Bhutan. But there's more...
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