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Henry Willson: The Man Who Invented Beefcake
During the Cold War of the 1950s, the Clark Gable-Cary Grant- Fernando Lamas model of masculinity, the suave, sophisticated bon-vivants who sipped champaign at El Crocadero, fell into disfavor....
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Fall 1978: Spending the Night with My Music Professor and His Favorite Boys
To fill my fine arts requirement at Augustana College, I registered for a class called "Music Cultures of the World." It sounded more interesting than "Music Appreciation."The professor, Dr. Morrow,...
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Kafka's Boyfriend: 10 Surprising Gay Facts about Franz Kafka
The one thing I learned from studying literature for ten years at Augustana College, Indiana University, and USC:Writers must never, ever be gay.If their gayness is undeniable, it is a trivial thing,...
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5 Cartoon Couples That You Thought Were Gay, But Probably Aren't
I'm all for subtexts. This blog is about finding gay connections in texts where the writer, director, and fans are all yelling "No, no, no!" And I've found them in dozens of children's tv shows, from...
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Tales of the City: Gay Guys, San Francisco, Who Cares?
Year after year, people tell me "The Tales of the City books are stupendous! Amazing! Wonderful! The best thing every written!""And they're historically vital! Gay author Armistead Maupin...
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Yuri's 4-Point Plan for Finding Super-Sized Guys
Yuri came as my guest to a Sociology Department reception in the spring of 1999, and immediately saw Marcel parked by the buffet table, taking two, three, four helpings of quiche and tabouli with pita...
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States Where Being Gay was a Felony
In 1970, sexual acts other than heterosexual intercourse were illegal in every state of the U.S. except Illinois. Sometimes specific sex acts, sometimes just "sodomy" or "the crime against nature."...
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Duke Kahanamoku: A Life Devoted to Surfing and Men
Born in 1890, Duke Kahanamoku was "the fastest swimmer alive," who popularized the sport of surfing, and to a great extent popularized Hawaii. He won gold medals for swimming at the Olympics in 1912...
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Summer 1988: Hooking Up with My "Uncle"
A Sunday in June:Visiting Rock Island, I went to church at the MCC, and a swishy, flamboyant older guy named Gene approached me during the coffee hour. "Your last name is...what?" he asked, offering a...
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The Gay-Positive Episode of "Here's Lucy"
The last of the trilogy of Lucille Ball tv series, Here's Lucy (1968-74) made Lucy Carter a widow with two high school-aged kids, Kim and Craig (played by her real life children,18-year old Lucie...
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The 12 Hottest Border and Castle Guards
I love men in uniform, especially the uniformed guards at country borders, and at monuments, castles, and public buildings. They're always so serious, certain that they have the most important job in...
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Summer 1987: Notre Dame, a Catholic Boy, and a Warm Summer Night
Summer 1987: 26 years old, in grad school at the University of Southern California, I had a paper on "Boccacio and the Jews" accepted at a Medieval Studies Conference at the University of Notre Dame...
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Preachers Have Penises
When I was growing up in the Nazarene Church, we spent a lot of time at Olivet, our college on the prairie of eastern Illinois. The church wanted to make sure that we went there after high school...
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American Dad: Horrifying, but not Homophobic
For as long as anyone can remember, Sunday night on Fox has meant animated sitcoms about nuclear families:1. A fat, dopey Dad.2. A slim, smarter Mom3-4. Two kids, a dopey son and a smart but plain...
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Top Coming Out Stories: Louie the Lilac to "Getting Some Cocks"
During the 1980s and 1990s, every time you met a new person, you exchanged coming out stories.It doesn't happen anymore. No one offers, and if you ask, the under-30 crowd says "What? Oh, I've always...
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Spring 2015: The Bear Party of Southern Minnesota
In West Hollywood, I went to bear parties in the Hollywood Hills with fifty guys in attendance.In New York, there were gay male nudist parties on Long Island with thirty or more guys in attendance.Even...
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Spring 2001: Skinny Dipping with the Biggest Guy on My Sausage List
The Biggest Guy on my Sausage List was Jermaine, a political science major at Harvard with a spectacular Kovbasa++++. We hit it off when I went to Boston for a job interview in February 2001, but...
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Richard Dean Anderson
Born in 1950, Richard Dean Anderson got rather a late start: he didn't start acting professionally until 1976, when he landed the role of young doctor Jeff Webber on General Hospital. But after that,...
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Jules Verne: The Disney Version
During the 1960s, every boy I knew loved Jules Verne -- journeys to distant corners of the world, weird dangers, lost civilizations, monsters, volcanoes, maelstroms, and nick-of-time escapes, all in an...
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Beefcake and Bonding in Old Photographs
I've never been interested in taking photos, not even now, when I have a telephone in my pocket that can take all the photos I want. Who needs a moment frozen in time, so that 20 or 30 or 40 years...
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