Happy Halloween, BOO and WOOF

I'm having a hard time deciding what to be this Halloween. Any suggestions???

Wishing you guys a safe, sexy and Woofy All Hallow's Eve. All hot tricks and plenty of treats.

A More Realistic Study of Gay Men Reveals Greater Ethnic and Economic Diversity Than Previously Researched

Gay Stereotypes Dispelled
By George Anderson

A one-size-fits-all approach to the gay and lesbian market is reducing the effectiveness of campaigns targeted to consumers based on their sexual preference. That is the finding of a recent study by New American Dimensions and the Asterix Group.

According to the study of 926 individuals online and in-person, the stereotypical young, white, urban and affluent gay and lesbian image often portrayed in the media is reflective of only a small percentage of consumers in this market segment.

Gary Gates, a demographer at the Williams Institute at the University of California-Los Angeles law school, told the San Jose Mercury News, "Gay men actually make less money than other men. And every time I say that, people say, 'What?' This stereotype of gay men being really wealthy - the whole 'Will and Grace' kind of stereotype - it's just absolutely not true."

Only 42 percent of gay men and 31 percent of lesbians report living in urban areas. The vast majority resides in small towns and rural areas.

About 12 percent of the study's respondents were identified as "closeted." Only four percent of this group reported having come out of the closet while 35 percent said they were still in.

These individuals, the research found, were more likely to be Caucasian, older and live in small communities. Eighty percent of these individuals said sexual orientation was not an important part of their identity.

The polar opposite to "closeted" individuals were those identified in the study as "super gays."

About 26 percent of respondents were classified into this segment by the study's authors. Members of this group were open about their sexual orientation and tended to be more highly educated and affluent.

Across the various segments, the study found some commonalities. For one, nearly two-thirds report having experienced stereotyping and discrimination as a result of their sexual orientation.

Christine Lehtonen, president of Asterix, told the Mercury News, "I expected to find more differences by gender, male and female. And primarily, there weren't a ton of differences."

Seventy percent of gay consumers were willing to spend more for products developed for companies that support their community. The two most popular methods for demonstrating that support are companies offering domestic partnership benefits (79 percent) and making donations to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) groups.

Reflecting on the study, David Morse, president of New American Dimensions, said in a press release, "We have segmented the LGBT market in all its diversity, providing a more detailed picture of the gay and lesbian customer, providing highly sought-after insights to mainstream advertisers."

Christine Lehtonen, president of Asterix, told the Mercury News, "I expected to find more differences by gender, male and female. And primarily, there weren't a ton of differences."
Seventy percent of gay consumers were willing to spend more for products developed for companies that support their community. The two most popular methods for demonstrating that support are companies offering domestic partnership benefits (79 percent) and making donations to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) groups.

Reflecting on the study, David Morse, president of New American Dimensions, said in a press release, "We have segmented the LGBT market in all its diversity, providing a more detailed picture of the gay and lesbian customer, providing highly sought-after insights to mainstream advertisers."

All of us knew all along that we are a diverse group of gay men with different kinks, attitudes, and backgrounds. While we don't need a survey to verify our diversity, I'm glad that finally someone has focused on our differences.

Now if we could only get advertisers to portray us as we bond, giving each other mega hairy muscle hugs, now that would be the kind of recognition I'd appreciate. WOOF.

Uncle Sam's Looking For A Few (Or Many) Hunky WOOFY Men

Here's a funny. Yea, right. They needed the recruits so badly, that they didn't check out the web site first? Someday, this kind of sillyness will come to an end. And the country will be much, much better for it.

Military Looks for a Few Good Woofy Men on Gay Website

Article Date: 10/19/2007 By Bryan Ochalla

In looking for a few good men, the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force decided to place thousands of recruitment ads on GLEE.com, a networking website for gay professionals. As soon as USA Today brought that to the attention of various military officials, however, the ads were brought down.

"This is the first I've heard about it," Maj. Michael Baptista, advertising branch chief for the Army National Guard, told the newspaper on Wednesday. "We didn't knowingly advertise on that particular website," which he said does not "meet the moral standards" of the military.
A Navy spokesperson told USA Today that nearly 8,000 ads would be removed from the site, while ads attributed to the Marine Corps were for civilian jobs not covered by "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

The ads were placed through New York-based Community Connect by way of Monster.com. Monster.com offers companies and organizations a "diversity and inclusion" package, which includes posts on niche websites aimed at various minorities, including gays and lesbians.
To Servicemembers Legal Defense Network Director of Communications Steve Ralls, the snafu was strangely, and sadly, ironic. Many gays and lesbians "have been drummed out of the armed forces simply for using sites like GLEE," he told USA Today

BEARFORCE1, Hot, Fuzzy Men With a Magnetism and Sound That's Much More Than Eye Candy. WOOOOOOF

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twQlpFrm5iM Judge for yourself.

Peter is the hottie above, at the left.

Top, right, a group shot of all the hot fuzzy dudes.

Maybe these are the guys I have had in mind to show the gay male world how to be hot and sexy and safe.

These guys together would make an awesome manwich. Talk about the ultimate buddy body bonding, all of us joining them in a Guinness Book of World's Records mega hairy muscle hug. WOOF.


YURI

GAY HISTORY MONTH, Is 31 Days Enough?

While it is nice to set aside a month to honor our gay heroes, shouldn't we also be honoring the countless gay and lesbian individuals, who have, in their own small way, made each of our lives better and better each and every day? All of our daily actions, collectively, however trivial they might be, do positively contribute to our state of well being.

A hero a day

Gay GLBT History Month introduces students to 31 gay rights leaders

http://www.washblade.com/2007/10-5/arts/feature/11355.cfm

REBECCA ARMENDARIZ Friday, October 05, 2007

From Leonardo da Vinci to Leonard Bernstein, organizers of GLBT History Month are urging a new generation to learn more about the contributions of 31 iconic gay figures throughout the month. This year marks the second time Equality Forum has organized the month-long celebration.

Though educators launched the concept in the mid-1990s, it failed to catch on. This time around, however, GLBT History Month has found support from major national organizations. Malcolm Lazin, Equality Forum’s executive director, says that last year, 20 organizations promoted the month on their web sites. This year, 80 colleges — from community institutions to Ivy League schools — have put a link to the project on their home pages.

Other supporters include 12 statewide organizations, 28 community centers and corporations, including Banana Republic and McDonald’s.GLBT History Month aims to educate the public about the importance of gay figures in creating the movement’s history. “As much as our history has been closeted from us, it’s also been closeted from the mainstream,” Lazin said. “[The month] combats a societal homophobia by providing role models in that history.”Equality Forum’s project is available to school-age children.

This year, the organization collaborated with the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network to meet with high school students. As a result of those interactions, Equality Forum has created weekly, multiple-choice challenges based on the biographies and videos for each week’s seven icons. At the end of the month, there will be a Rainbow Challenge based on all 31 role models.“If we do not take the responsibility of teaching our history, no one else will,” Lazin said.

Some of those honored include Gore Vidal, an American author known for his novel “The City and the Pillar”; Susan Sontag, an American essayist and activist; David Hockney, an English artist; Gertrude Stein, an American author and art enthusiast; and Frank Kameny, who, according to Lazin, is the “father of the GLBT civil rights movement.”

State, national and international executive directors of gay rights groups submitted their nominations and Kenji Yoshino, a Yale Law School professor and author of “Covering,” and Rev. Nancy Wilson, moderator of Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC), selected the final 31 icons.

Yoshino says that GLBT History Month is for everyone.“Because GLBT individuals are usually born to heterosexual families, it is not as likely that individuals in the GLBT community will be taught by their families of origin about GLBT history,” Yoshino said. “The organizing principle of ‘a person a day for a month’ permits individuals to learn without being overloaded,” he said.October was chosen to highlight these people, Yoshino said, because it is the beginning of the school year, and it’s more likely that students would be made aware of the project.“Our hope is … that individuals will see one famous figure they know and then keep browsing to see who else we have chosen as their peers,” he said.

The selections are as diverse as Leonardo da Vinci and Angela Davis. Yoshino says, “that sense of oddness … should teach us that the project of gay history is still young. Because our history has just begun to see the light, it’s not surprising that people juxtapose a Renaissance artist and a contemporary activist.”

Frank Kameny is one of those contemporary activists. Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) names him as one of her own personal heroes. He is widely credited with spearheading the gay civil rights movement, and has been an activist for half a century.“He started that grassroots organizing that has laid a foundation for later change,” Baldwin said.

Baldwin recently wrote a piece titled, “Leaning Toward Justice” as part of the Gay History Project.“Leaning Toward Justice” compares the gay rights movement to the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Baldwin said the project will help remind young readers that while change sometimes seems to come slowly, in a historical context, the movement has actually progressed with surprising speed. To put things in context, Baldwin writes of her own coming out in the 1980s and the energy she put into learning about gay rights leaders and their contributions.“No role model ever told me about the Daughters of Bilitis, the Mattachine Society, or Stonewall; Elaine Noble, Frank Kameny, or any of the courageous leaders who shaped our movement or contributed their art, their science, their sweat and their intellect to this world,” she said.

Kameny says he feels good about being named a hero of gay history. “I think as ideas and projects of this kind come along, provided people do pursue them, we’ll be able to establish our history and our place in history, using the word history in a larger sense. There is an extensive gay history,” Kameny said. He added that he has too many gay heroes to name.

Kameny has played a key role in achieving civil rights for the gay community. His early focus was repealing sodomy laws and removing homosexuality from the American Psychiatric Association’s manual of mental disorders. He is hopeful that with a Democrat in the White House in 2008, that his final goal of repealing the ban on gays in the military will be realized.“More than anything else, not as a specific issue, but simply as a tactic, we just need to get people out and open. I think that’s absolutely necessary,” he said.

Recently, Kameny’s papers and materials from the 1960s were put on display at the Smithsonian. “We would have never believed when we were making those signs in 1965 that they were going to end up actually in the Smithsonian and some of my papers in the Library of Congress … it’s just totally incredible,” he said.

Yea, I have had the privilege of meeting and talking briefly with Frank Kameny, over several years. He is quite a man. A living history of the gay movement.

But like anything else, youth is wasted on the young. Who needs the most education today are gay youth. They think, somehow, that they are the first queers to face anything. But hey, there are many of us, survivors, if you will, that have lived open lives, have lived actively sexually, and have blazed the trail for the twinks of today.

Buddy body bonding never goes out of style, and will always have its place in the gay male world. Fortunately, in this case, one size does fit all. Do some exploring on your own, hug a bud and have a fantastic Columbus Day weekend.

Yet Another Cry for Censorship. It Doesn't Take Much For These Critics To Get Their Panties All In A Bind

A whole new controversy is brewing over the poster below that will be used to promote Folsom Street Fair this year. Personally I find it full of hot leather dudes and a gal, sharing a common table, breaking "bread" and wine together, like I imagine, in the purest sense, what the ideal image of leather pride events such as this, is all about. Your thoughts?????

h.cassell@ebar.com
Folsom Street Fair's photograph has led Miller Brewing Company to ask that its logo be removed. Photo: FredAlert

The photograph resembling Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting of the Last Supper used on the Folsom Street Fair program and its promotional posters drew fire Tuesday, September 25 from Concerned Women for America.

The anti-gay group issued a news release stating that the Folsom Street Fair is "reminiscent of biblical Sodom and Gomorrah."

"The bread and wine representing Christ's broken body and life-giving blood are replaced with sadomasochistic sex toys in this twisted version of da Vinci's 'Last Supper,'" said the CWA's statement.

In response to pressure from CWA's constituents, Miller Brewing Company on Wednesday requested that Folsom Street Events remove its logo from the posters displaying the leather last supper image.

"While Miller has supported the Folsom Street Fair for several years, we take exception to the poster the organizing committee developed this year," the company said on its Web site. "We understand some individuals may find the imagery offensive and we have asked the organizers to remove our logo from the poster effective immediately."

[After the print edition of the Bay Area Reporter went to press, a Miller spokesman told the paper that the company would continue to support the event.

"We are and will continue to be supportive [of Folsom Street Fair and the LGBT community]," said Julian Green, director of media relations of Miller Brewing Company, Wednesday afternoon.

Miller has not requested a refund of any sponsorship money, Green said. Green said that Miller's decision was based on corporate policies.

"[It] has nothing to do with public pressure," said Green. Green said that the company's decision was based on marketing guidelines at the corporate level that don't allow use of its logo on any "creative design" depicting a "religious connotation."

Until CWA's call to action Tuesday, Miller's corporate office wasn't aware of the use of its logo on the poster, Green said. "Our corporate offices was not made aware of the artwork, however, there may have been some awareness at the local level," said Green. "If it had been reviewed at the corporate level it would not have been approved."]

Folsom Street Events Executive Director Demetri Moshoyannis told the B.A.R. late Wednesday morning that they weren't concerned about Miller's request to remove its logo from the posters. When asked if they thought that they might lose Miller's sponsorship, Moshoyannis said, "Not to our knowledge."

People commenting on the Joe.My.God blog called for support of Miller rather than a boycott, stating that the beverage company has been supportive of the LGBT community for many years.

According to CWA, "Scripture says that God is not mocked, yet it doesn't stop people from trying," Matt Barber, policy director for cultural issues with CWA, said in the release. "As evidenced by this latest stunt, open ridicule of Christianity is unfortunately very common within much of the homosexual community."

"I guess it wouldn't be Folsom Street Fair without offending some extreme members of the global community," said Andy Copper, board president of Folsom Street Events, in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon. "There is no intention to be particularly pro-religion or anti-religion with this poster; the image is intended only to be reminiscent of the 'Last Supper' painting."

Copper stated, "... many of the people in the leather and fetish communities are spiritual and that this poster image is a way of expressing that side of the community's interests and beliefs."
"The irony is that da Vinci was widely considered to be homosexual," Copper added.

Copper pointed to the diversity in the photo, stating that it is a "distinctive representation of diversity with women and men, people of all colors and sexual orientations" which is a part of San Francisco's values.

Local gay clergy also weighed in on the matter.

"I disagree with them I don't think that [Folsom Street Events] is mocking God," said Chris Glaser, interim senior pastor at Metropolitan Community Church – San Francisco. "I think that they are just having fun with a painting of Leonardo da Vinci and having fun with the whole notion of 'San Francisco values' and I think it's pretty tastefully and cleverly done."

Glaser added, "I think that oftentimes religious people miss out on things because they don't have a sense of humor. That's why being a queer spiritual person we can laugh at ourselves and laugh at other people."

Barber called the photo an action of lashing out in a "hateful manner toward the very people they accuse," referring to gay activists calling Christians "haters and homophobes." He said that taxpayers are being "forced" to pay for the fair that allows "'gay' men and women to parade the streets fully nude, many having sex – even group orgies – in broad daylight, while taxpayer funded police officers look on and do absolutely nothing."

CWA called on California's elected officials, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), and Democratic Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer to "publicly condemn this unprovoked attack against Christ and His followers."

Pelosi was mocked for her "San Francisco values" in a Saturday Night Live skit last year that poked fun at right-wing attacks that she would bring "left of center" values to Congress.
Tuesday afternoon, Pelosi downplayed the right's uproar.

"As a Catholic, the speaker is confident that Christianity has not been harmed," said Drew Hammill, Pelosi's press secretary.

Barber urged the media to "cover the affront to Christianity with the same vigor as recent stories about cartoon depictions of Mohammed and other items offensive to the Muslim community."

Moshoyannis would not comment beyond the organization's news release sent out on Tuesday.

Copper stated that the leather last supper was the first FSF poster inspired by cultural classics in a series of posters forthcoming from FSE including "American Gothic" by Grant Wood, Edvard Munch's "The Scream" and even The Sound of Music.

Photographer FredAlert, who produced the staged leather last supper, declined to comment.

I admire Fred for his creativity and hot composition. WOOOF.

It has been too long, (5 years), since I've been to Folsom. Got to get my barebutt and chaps back out there some time in the future.

Mega hairy muscle leather pride hugs. Hoping all the guys attending Folsom have a great time. Party hardy and play safe.

Gay Advertising. It Has Always Been Out There, and the Straight Public Didn't Notice.

If you haven't watched it, Mad Men on AMCTV is an awesome look at the golden age of advertising in the early 1960's and explores, among many topics, the input of gay men in the industry, especially the art work.

The article below has a link: http://www.washblade.com/2007/9-21/arts/books/11284.cfm

Taking the ‘Hint’ Gay Former George Mason professor chronicles gay-friendly marketing in new book on advertising
ZACK ROSEN Friday, September 21, 2007

Before there was a widespread gay media, before publications like The Advocate could show car ads with two men holding hands, advertising executives had to find more subtle ways to court the gay and lesbian consumer.

Bruce H. Joffe’s new book, “A Hint of Homosexuality: ‘Gay’ and Homoerotic Imagery in American Print Advertising” documents ads, starting in 1905, that would raise eyebrows even among gay people living in 2007.

“Hints of Homosexuality” grew from an article Joffe wrote on homoerotic imagery in Ivory Soap ads from the early part of the century. Entitled “.056/100% ... Homosexual,” the piece explores imagery that is undeniably gay friendly. “[Those ads] are amazing,” Joffe says, describing in particular one that is set in a locker room. “You can see pubic hair! The other guys are looking at it.”

Joffe’s interest in early gay advertising began as a hobby. He had a number of early ads framed on the walls of his house and friends frequently suggested that they should be compiled and published. EBay searches raised his collection to over 300 pieces. Though the visual nature of the ads would lend itself best to a coffee table book or full color volume, practical concerns made an academic work the more viable option.

“You are talking about a niche within a niche,” Joffe says. “There’s no money [for the publisher] in making this a coffee table book. Being a professor, you have to publish or perish. I tried to write the book with a popular voice so that anyone could pick it up, could look at the words and say ‘He’s right, I never noticed this before.”LEAFING THROUGH “HINT” forces the reader to look at old marketing in a new light.

The book gives many examples of coding, the subtle images inserted in print advertising that would go unnoticed by a straight reader but perk the attention of an informed gay man or lesbian. “If an advertising illustrator dressed someone in red, had someone lighting someone else’s cigarette [it meant something gay,]”

Joffe says. “Sex sells, it has always sold. People in marketing always knew that there is more than one market. There was no LOGO, no Blade. How do you reach these people? You reach them by encoding.” Joffe sites many examples of “gay vague” advertising in the book.

A 1948 ad for Schlitz beer used the tagline “I was curious…I tasted it” and a three panel set up. In the first frame, two men and two women are being served the beer. In the second frame, the men stand next to each other while trying the beer, and in the third frame the women are gone completely, implying that the rewards of their curiosity include more than just “the beer that made Milwaukee famous.”

Joffe’s interest in gay advertising goes beyond the casual or the educational. He is donating all profits from “Hint” to the Commercial Closet Association, a non-profit that seeks to influence advertisers to include gay populations in their marketing. The association also maintains an archive of gay-inclusive television advertising from around the world, a collection that Joffe is adding to by lending all of his hard copies of the ads documented in the book. “This organization is trying to reach a point where it doesn’t matter who is pictured in the ad, but that we’re all respecting each other while advertisers are making money,”

Joffe says. “I am loaning them my collection of print ads so there can be a museum that documents and chronicles the history of gays in advertising.”

So, those male underwear ads in the old Sears, Montgomery Wards and JC Penny catalogs weren't the only ones out there in the 1960's and early 1970's to draw the curiosity of an young adolescent gay male. Oh, the power of advertising!!!!

It Really Shouldn't Matter, But, For Some, It Does

This should really be a good movie. Tom Cavanaugh is a hottie, and the subject matter couldn't have come out at a better time. Now, if we can only see these guys give each other on the ice big hairy muscle hugs and locked lips, after a goal, WOOF. That and a locker scene full of buddy body bonding would make this flick a screen gem.

'Gay hockey movie' hopes to score despite vicious remarks
Last Updated: Thursday, September 13, 2007 8:12 PM ET
CBC News
Director Laurie Lynd says he's shocked by the hateful comments aimed at his "sweet film" about tolerance — Breakfast with Scot, or the "gay hockey movie" as it has been dubbed.
But if the movie can score at the box office as a result, Lynd says he doesn't mind.
In the movie playing this week at the Toronto International Film Festival, Canadian actor Tom Cavanagh plays a gay former Toronto Maple Leaf who works as broadcaster for a major sports network.

Because of homophobia in the field, he decides to keep his personal life a secret but that all changes when his partner's flamboyant nephew, Scot, comes to live with the couple.
"It's the one hurdle that's left to be cleared and yet they're not even close to clearing it," said Cavanagh, the Ottawa-born actor who played the title character on the TV series Ed.
The NHL and the Leafs both gave permission for their logos to be used in the movie — a first for a gay-themed movie, according to the director.

"It was an easy decision," said John Lashway, a member of the Leafs' management team. "We have fans from all kinds of lifestyles, so it just made sense for us."
Negative online posts have already taken aim at the movie, with a couple of right-wing U.S. groups contacting the Leafs. Lynd has also received hate mail.

"I read [the negative comments] while we were in production, and I had to put it down because it was so vicious about such a sweet film that is … about tolerance," says Lynd, adding he was surprised it was even an issue in 2007.

One of Canada's most vocal openly gay athletes, former Olympic swimmer Mark Tewksbury, says he's hopeful this film will open doors for athletes.

"What it could mean is that if it's OK in a fictional movie then maybe, if there is a gay person on a professional franchise like the Maple Leafs, it gives them permission to be themselves."
But for the Montreal-native Noah Bernett, who plays Scot in the movie, the issue is a no-brainer: "I think the moral of this story is that people shouldn't be scared of who they are."
More:
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/09/13/hockey-movie-scot.html?ref=rss--

Cruisingforsex.com Gets Its Best Exposure Ever

When it rain, it pours. And for the web site, http://www.cruisingforsex.com/, the whole Larry Craig thing has given it new exposure. Read it for yourself.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20529609/site/newsweek/?from=rss

But thanks to cruisingforsex.com (which boasts some 30,000 visitors daily, its operators say) and its competitors, such information is easily accessible around the country—and the world. And the information is precise; some listings direct readers to visit a location between, say 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. How convenient.

Here are more exerpts from the article:

Has craigslist.org put a dent in cruisingforsex.com's business? Do chatrooms pose a threat?

Craigslist certainly has changed the field. A lot of strictly younger people tend to turn first to hookups online. But my impression—based on what I am personally experiencing, not any research I’ve done—[is] that people may be tiring of the hookups online and wanting to get back into the real world. There’s some benefits to both ways of meeting. Certainly craigslist, which by the way is often used to hook up in public locations, certainly has taken a lot of men who now meet online and go to each others’ house.

With all the information on cruisingforsex.com and on craigslist, do you feel that law enforcement is more aware now? Or are they less likely to crack down than they were 10 years ago?

In all of our years of doing this, there has always been a constant crackdown and a constant drumbeat of harassment. What Senator Craig has experienced is not unfamiliar to a lot of sexually active men out there.

But, whatever your orientation, is engaging in sexual activity in public okay?Most cruisers don’t want to engage in sex in public. They want to meet someone in a public space and then try to be discreet—maybe in a stall or a cubicle or maybe behind a bush.

As you know from my previous post, I am not sympathetic at all to Larry Craig. And even if he fights to retain his seat, he is facing an uphill battle. Gay groups are out to squeeze his nuts and the right wing has already gotten a noose ready for the lynching.

Hot topics such as this keep the blogging world with enough topical subject matter to write about for days. I would really like that this publicity move to the more important topic of safer sex between two consenting gay men. What we need are more play spaces around the U.S, where guys can meet and not have to take unnecessary risks of public sex. Sure, all of us love hot protected sex, but I feel that "spur of the moment" sex is probably a lot more risky than motivated, intential, pure buddy body bonding. Right here, right now sex, public cruising sex, may be exciting, but it doesn't have lasting benefits. It is just a fix, and sometimes a risky one, at that.

Example Of Hypocrisy At Its Finest-"I'm Not Gay" or "I Am Not A Crook". What Bold Face Lying Politicians Are Saying.

Events of this past week only prove to me how important it is for gay men to be proud of engaging in healthy buddy body bonding, and pity poor trolls like Larry Craig, who are compulsive sexoholics, love bathroom sex and can't accept being gay.

The following is an excerpt from a Washington Post article this past week about bathroom stall cruising. I was floored when I first read it. What every gay guy and the general public more than need to know about anonymous sex. Check it out for yourself.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/29/AR2007082902435.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR

In this article, the authors are very thorough in their research. An early reference to foot-tapping is made in the 1975 book "The Tea Room Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places," by Laud Humphreys, a sociologist. It is based on Humphreys's 1960s study of public sex.
"In tea rooms where there were doors on the stalls, I have observed the use of foot-tapping as a means of communication," Humphreys wrote. He added that "doors on stalls serve as hindrances rather than aids to homoerotic activity."

Consider the bathroom stall, that utilitarian public enclosure of cold steel and drab hue. And then you can imagine the following.

"If you are in the stall, you tap your foot, and if the person next to you taps a foot, you keep going back and forth until one person makes a move," he says. "Someone will then stick their hand underneath. Or they will pass a note on paper. Or, what I've heard is, when they think it's safe," they will move on to sexual contact in the space beneath the partition.
"Some people are absolutely blatant" about showing arousal in public bathrooms, he said. "I've seen this in malls and witnessed that myself."
The reaction? "That depends," he said. "For people who are not of that same persuasion, they yell and call names. I've seen people escorted out by security, and I've witnessed people gesturing back, reaching over and grabbing them. That's when you roll your eyes and walk out."
This behavior violates the "unwritten code of conduct that men observe in bathrooms," said John Davidson, legal director at Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund

Well bathroom sex, has never, ever turned me on. When I enter a public men's or gent's room, I'm there to take a piss and wash my hands, never more than that. Besides the risk, it fucking demeaning.

I would never deny a guy's pleasure of cruising openly. It happens all the time. But as I have written in previous posts over the years, any one doing it is taking some big risks.

I don't feel a bit sorry for the old fart. He hates us, as gay men, and has voted many times for legislation which denies us our right to marry and live without fear or retribution. The reason he hates us, is that he hates himself. He has created this great fuckin lie, and he despises us for the freedoms we both enjoy and seek.

That said, I want to wish you hot studs a great weekend. And a special mega hairy muscle salute to working men everywhere. WOOOF.

Tidbits and Factoids

Here are some interesting items I have collected recently. Let me know what you think.

ITEM: Based on interviews with more than 12,000 gay men and 10,000 lesbians across the country, San Francisco's Community Marketing Inc. claims the survey provides the most comprehensive view yet into psychographic and demographic data on the gay community.

For instance, with regard to family life, the survey found 46 percent of gay men and 65 percent of lesbians are partnered or live with a significant other. While 20 percent of lesbians have children under the age of 18 living at home, only five percent of gay men do.

For gay men, the median household income is $83,000 per year (gay singles, $62,000; gay couples living together, $130,000). For lesbians, the median household income is $80,000 per year (lesbian singles $52,000; lesbian couples living together $96,000).

Regarding media choices, gay and lesbian publications were read most often by both genders, although national "mainstream" publications also fared well. Favorites were The New York Times, Men's Health and GQ among gay men, and People, AARP The Magazine and O The Oprah among lesbians. The top three most watched television networks for both genders were NBC, ABC, and CBS. For gay men, the next three were Fox, Bravo and Logo; for lesbians, Showtime, Fox, and Logo.

Eighty-five percent of gay men and 85 percent of lesbians agreed advertising in gay media favourably influences their purchasing decisions;

Eight-nine percent of gay men and 92 percent of lesbians reported that the way a company treats its gay and lesbian employees impacts their decision to do business with that company, with the majority (52 percent and 59 percent respectively) saying this was strongly positive;

Eighty-eight percent of gay men and 91 percent of lesbians report that their purchasing decisions are favourably influenced by corporate sponsorship of gay events and participation in gay charities.

ITEM: In the current issue of Out magazine, there are 65 individual nipples featured in articles and in ads, including Marky Mark's 3 nips.

ITEM: According to a press release from Equality Forum, 463 of the 2007 Fortune 500 companies voluntarily include sexual orientation in their employment nondiscrimination policies.There is currently no federal workplace protection based on sexual orientation, and only 20 states include sexual orientation nondiscrimination in their workplace statutes.

ITEM: Las Vegas magicians Siegfried & Roy are coming out of the closet in a highly anticipated autobiography soon to be released. It may not come as a big surprise to most people that the two performers are gay but it will be the first time they admit to this officially.According to details from the upcoming book leaked to the National Enquirer, Siegfried and Roy were once very much in love but have since transformed their relationship into a working partnership and a deep friendship. (Oh brother, do they have to state the obvious?)

Hoping all of my body bonding buds in the Northern Hemisphere are enjoying these last weeks of the summer season. I know you studs are making the most of it. Hey, if you're heading to the beach, help out a fellow hottie who needs some assistance spreading some sun block on his back. I'm sure that helping hand will not go unrewarded. You'll be making a lasting friend. That's what buddy body bonding is all about.

You guys in the Southern Hemisphere, I know it will be spring there soon. And I know you dudes are ready for some springtime buddy body bonding as well. WOOF.

If Michael Musto Wrote About It, It Must Be True

Fellow gay boy and all around great guy, Michael Musto, the celebrated columnist for the Village Voice, has something to say about the scarcity of guys who identify themselves as bottoms:

The weird news in gay land is that no one's a bottom anymore (except for a certain downtown Manhattan promoter with a flair for double penetration). Tragically enough, a whole generation of bottoms passed on some time ago, and then came a whole new generation that learned from day one that being a wide-end receiver is risky, so they've always been testy and squeamish about it. That's perfectly understandable, but as a result, virtually every gay on the market today is a versatile top—or "vers top," if you prefer—"though I'll bottom for the right guy," they always add with a noble flourish. So unless you happen to have pulled up in a golden coach and have 300 condoms rubber-banded to your crotch, no one's gonna bottom for you and sex will undoubtedly consist of twiddling thumbs and bumping pussies and being more frustrated than if you'd stayed home alone with your fleshlight (the male sex toy whose site generously invites you to "select an orifice"). Somebody take it up the ass, please!

I totally agree with what Michael writes. No one seems to want to be a bottom anymore. How many times have we come across that double talk phrase, "bottom for the right guy"? I think bottom boys must reassess their fear of being fucked safely. There has to be gay public education showing how the top guy can coaks the squimish bottom guy into be fucked, and really liking it. I say, give 'em some buddy bonding. Be it in a pup tent under two zipped together sleeping bags, or in a secluded hallway, we guys have the responsibility to reverse perceptions that guys can fuck each other, and do it pleasurably, without fear. While I rather see guys having some fears about being fucked, hell, you can be a fuck pig and do it safely. Think condoms, guys.

Mega hairy muscle hugs of fucking til the cows cum home.

Harassment. The Illinois Gay Rodeo is experiencing it

The Gay Rodeo season is in full swing now, and not without some controversy, from straights.

There is such a thing. Its Web site is http://www.ilgra.com/. (The pink cowboy boots are a nice touch.)

The Windy City Rodeo, sponsored by ILGRA, is scheduled for Aug. 25-26 in Crete. The rodeo has been held in the Chicago area for years, but about five years ago, an inquiry was made about bringing it to Springfield.

"I called and they said you stay out of it, we'll handle it," said Buff Carmichael, who inquired with the non-fair events office. "I haven't heard a word since.

"They'll catch a plane to Colorado to lure the high school rodeo here, but they won't do anything to get the gay rodeo."

No doubt, offering the fairgrounds' Multipurpose Arena for this would be a hot potato for the state, probably too hot. Picketing protesters. Horrified homophobes. Scandalized Springfieldians. The only reason a serious bid hasn't been made to bring it here is easy to see. Hint: It's a three-letter word that begins with "g."

For about 10 years, Michael Cunningham Jr. has been co-director of Illinois' gay rodeo. Cunningham is a 1985 graduate of Lanphier High School. He used to compete before he became co-director. Bringing the rodeo to his hometown would be great, Cunningham said.
The Windy City Rodeo attracts about 100 competitors and 5,000 spectators, according to Cunningham. That translates into tourism and bucks for local merchants.

We are always looking for events to bring to Springfield. This would be one controversial event, but an event just the same. Last time I checked, a gay person's dollar was worth 100 cents, same as a straight person's dollar.

Cunningham foresees a couple of problems with having the rodeo in Springfield. Most of the rodeo's sponsors are in Chicago, for example. And then there is travel.

"Logistically it would be difficult," he said. "People come from all over the U.S. and Canada to compete. It would be a challenge to get people to the rodeo in Springfield."
But, I said, the high schoolers manage to get here from all over the country, and farther.

"That's true," Cunningham said. "And the great thing is the facility there is world class."
Humane treatment of the animals is always a concern at a rodeo. The ILGRA has adopted guidelines that it (hopefully) adheres to. They are on its Web site. But anytime you have a rodeo, animal welfare will be an issue for some.

As for local protesters coming out to tell the gay cowboys and cowgirls they will burn in hell, Cunningham says that is not a concern. It's true, he said, that the Chicago area is more diverse than Springfield, and as a result, more accepting of a gay rodeo. But he believes his hometown would be all right with it.

Events in the gay rodeo virtually are the same as in a straight rodeo - bull and bronc riding, roping, barrel racing and bulldogging, for example. There also are special "camp events." Those include a timed event in which competitors put underwear on a goat, a three-person team (one of whom must compete in drag) herding a steer, and "steer deco" in which competitors attempt to tie a ribbon on a steer's tail while teammates remove a rope from its horns.

"The camp events are the most competitive events," Michael said, "because a lot of people enter those, and so the prize money can be substantial."

The Illinois Gay Rodeo Association is part of the International Gay Rodeo Association. The international's finals rodeo is huge. This year it will be held in Denver in October. It has been held in Las Vegas many times. Springfield might be too small for that one. Anyway, the IGRA's bylaws specify that its finals must be held in an indoor arena.

Look, you don't have to agree with the lifestyle to support bringing the gay rodeo to Springfield. That expensive rodeo arena at the fairgrounds sits empty most of the year. Why not try to get something/anything out there that will make some money?

They are going to hold Illinois' gay rodeo somewhere. It might as well be here.

Well, my heart goes out to Michael Cunningham for fighting the good fight. I, myself, love the IGRA circuit and try to support it every chance I get. It is a great event, plenty of fun and lots of hot cowpokes. WOOOF, who could want anything else?

EDGY MY ASS. Barebacking Is Just " FUCKING STUPID' !!!

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How Sad Is This?

The Life and Death of A Young Gay American

By: PAUL SCHINDLER
07/11/2007

In October 2003, Michael Glatze, then 28, sat in Manhattan's Union Square Virgin Megastore, enthusiastically explaining Young Gay America, the organization he helped launch with a mission to "save lives by educating and informing queer youth about their importance to society."

With his co-founder and boyfriend Benjie Nycum, (That's Benji on the left, and Michael, in the middle) Glatze had made an award-winning film and launched a Web site, both of which enabled queer youth across the U.S. to tell their stories. They would later start a magazine bearing the group's name. But, the heart of Young Gay America was a series of five, two-week road trips Glatze, Nycum, and several others took across the U.S. and Canada, in which they met with scores of queer youth, almost all of them remote from major urban areas. Detailed interviews and photos from those encounters were posted on the group's Web site, and served as the model for the stories other youths submitted themselves. In a tribute of sorts to their efforts, a right-wing Christian group named younggayamerica.com one of the nation's "Ten Most Dangerous Websites."

Glatze and Nycum met working at XY magazine in San Francisco, but hoped to move beyond that publication's slick appeal to urban gay youth, and reach LGBT young people in small town America who had the least resources and support. "I'm talking about the ones who are not going to send us e-mail," Glatze said of those most isolated and in need of outreach. "They are not going to show up at the doorstep of a halfway house or a home. They are not going to e-mail anyone. They are stuck."

The Michael Glatze who devoted his life's work to help those gay youth is no more. At some point in the past three years, he had "a born-again experience," which he announced to the world in a July 3 confessional on WorldNetDaily.com, a Christian-right Web site that has long been a forum for extreme anti-gay views.

In a 90-minute telephone interview with Gay City News the evening of July 9, Glatze talked in detail about the crisis he said led to his Christian rebirth, how that experience motivated him to reject his self-identification as a gay man, his feelings of "repulsion" at the thought of sex with another man, and his conclusion that his work at Young Gay America was all about "peddling homosexuality to youth."

But Glatze's story is not simply one of rejecting his own homosexuality. It is also about the mission he feels today - one he termed "evangelical" - to alert society that "the homosexual mindset is that they always want to find more homosexuals."

Most startlingly, Glatze said that America needs to "examine whether homosexuality should be legal" or if gay sex should instead be punished by "imprisonment."It is of course child's play to point out the contradictions across the board between the Michael Glatze of 2003 and the 2007 model.

He remains impressively articulate, precise in his choice of words, passionate, amiable, even gentle, despite his harsh words about what he calls the "false gay identity." In fact, he emphasized not the discontinuity apparent to almost everyone else, but instead the seamlessness of his transformation.

"This is a fruition of all that I have believed in my life," Glatze said of his current thinking on God and homosexuality. He explained that his rethinking began with an unexplained illness he feared might be the same heart condition that killed his father suddenly when Glatze was only 13.Curiously, though, it was disillusionment with his father, even as a young boy, that he said led to his embrace of "the gay identity" as a teenager.

His father flagrantly cheated on his mother, Glatze said, and as a boy he became her comforter and protector, and also vowed to never hurt a woman in the same way. By the time of his father's death, Glatze was experiencing his burgeoning sexuality, but he claims that energy was free-floating, "not focused on any object." It was only when a friend told him at age 14 about people who live their lives as gay that he connected his feelings to same-sex desire. "I was already shy and introverted," he said. "I thought, 'Well, that's what I am.' It sealed my fate. I wanted that masculinity and my sexuality was there. And it crystallized into gay identity."

In a WorldNetDaily.com posting accompanying his essay, Glatze was quoted referring to his "darkest days of late-night parties, substance abuse, and all kinds of things when I felt like, 'Why am I here, what am I doing?'" Even then, he said, "There was always a voice there." But in this week's interview, he conceded that was a reference to years earlier when he was a raver in San Francisco, before he and Nycum moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where his ex-partner's family lives.

The voice Glatze says he heard didn't fully reveal itself until his health scare passed and he said, "'Thank God,' and it was the first time the word God made sense to me." What resulted he said was "freedom." Studying the Bible, "came to open my mind to ideas I had not looked at before... I was making peace with my God instead of him being my enemy."As a result, he explained, "I was seeing how powerful sexuality was and that I should not take it flippantly."

Yet Glatze and Nycum were in a long-term relationship, and though he would not discuss their intimate life and whether they were monogamous, he acknowledged that he loved Benjie and that their union was, in his view, "divinely inspired." So what was flippant about that love?"

In the homosexual desire, there is a craving that has a sense of need and along with it the sense that we are doing something wrong," Glatze responded. "That comes from the knowledge of right and wrong and of life. That is different from what I am calling a normal relationship." The potential for procreation is critical in appropriate sexual relationships, Glatze now believes. "If I tried to have sex with a guy, it would steal his sexuality," he argued.

"We have within us the power and important ability to create life." Asked about all the heterosexual coupling that has nothing to do with procreation, Glatze conceded that there is considerable "lust-based" straight sex. He was not able, however, to articulate precisely why then his new Christian right allies focus their ire so disproportionately on homosexuality.

His experience is his past homosexuality, Glatze said. "I can only tell my own story."Glatze's decision to speak out after several years of evolution in his beliefs was, he said, "The obvious thing. I had already come to the conclusion that not everyone who has same-sex desires has to have a gay identity. I got rid of both and I felt more true to myself. Anyone else could do it."

But Glatze is interested in more than simply spreading the good news of his rebirth. He warns that homosexuality and heterosexuality cannot co-exist."The more homosexuality is accepted, the more homosexuals there are," he said. "The more we perpetuate the gay identity to children, the more homosexuals there are. The homosexual mindset is that they always want to find more homosexuals."

Asked to explain a statement at the core of traditional right-wing fear-mongering regarding homosexuality's threat to children, Glatze mentioned what he said was a common gay fantasy about seducing straight men, and his own determination as a younger man to "queer up the world."

Speaking of his youthful embrace of his homosexuality, Glatze asserted, "If it was a world where no gay identity existed and if you had same-sex behavior punished, then a) I would not have done it, b) I would not have had a gay identity that does not exist, and c) I would have seen myself as a normal heterosexual and sought the help of the numerous support groups to deal with my feelings." In mentioning the criminalization of gay sex,

Glatze amended his choice of words from "imprisonment" to "punishment" and then emphasized that he was not endorsing the idea, but only saying that America needed to discuss the question - that is, whether the freedom he has found might need to be enforced on others.

As for his success in dealing with his now-troublesome homosexual feelings, Glatze said the idea of having sex with a man makes him sick, and that he is attracted to women.

Still, he acknowledged, "I lived with the habits for so long, there are times when I can see habitual reactions. Something you might have looked at all your life, you can see yourself notice it, but it does not have the same result in terms of desire. I don't crave or want anymore."His attraction to women has not led him into a relationship, and Glatze emphasized he is not interested in any "lust-based sex." Asked how he will be drawn into a sexual relationship with a woman without lust, he responded, "It's part of the great mystery of life," and said that through prayer he had learned from God that a relationship is probably at least a year off.

Glatze - attractive, intelligent, and committed - could become a formidable anti-gay leader, but there are signs that after dipping his toe in the water, he has found it disagreeably cold.

Scheduled to appear this week on Paula Zahn's CNN program and the Sirius Radio show hosted by Michelangelo Signorile (whose producer passed on Glatze's current contact information to Gay City News), he backed out of both. "I've actually been trying to cut down on talking to people," Glatze said. "I had prayed about going on 'Signorile' and CNN and decided not to. Many people I've spoken to have been not so nice to me."

This guy is so messed up, it isn't funny. I only have pity for him. Again this is another case of a gay guy who somehow feels that turning straight will make his fucked up mind feel better. It's not his sexuality that is the matter, it's his mental state of health. I am so sorry that he feels that his life has been wasted. And now he is in the hands of the Christian Right to make him their latest ex-gay poster boy in their endless propaganda drive to turn the non gay American public against our cause for equal rights and the legal ability to marry.

Just Chillin Out

Not much going on with me today. But I'm looking forward to another great summertime weekend.

Seeing this pic reminds me how much I enjoy nipples. I return to this topic, from time to time, but it's worth repeating.

There is nothing more enjoyable to me that man to man nipple play. It just gets me aroused big time.

The response of the nipple to touch is pure pleasure, almost like an out-of-body experience. Tweaking another guy's nips connects me with his pleasure. It seems like nipple play is the ties that bind some guys together. It's just a big fuckin turn-on.

Hoping you guys are having a super day and are gearing up for a great weekend. These lazy days of summer don't last long. So enjoy some shirtless pleasures. Hey, I'm going to do just that.

And I couldn't think of any better summertime pleasure than to lick some creamy chocolate flavored Readi-Whip cream off a hot guy's hairy muscled pec and filling up my beard with yummy pleasure. Now, that's nipple lickin good.

We Never Can Change Who We Love, Who We Are. Yet Another Positive Affirmation Of Why We Are Gay

(CNN) -- After five years of trying to date girls and to conform and conceal his sexuality, 18-year-old Steven Field told his friends and family that he was gay.

Steven Field, now 25, came out to his friends and family when he was 18.

"I wasn't being honest to myself," Field, now 25, said of his closeted high school years in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois.

Being gay was natural for him, Field, who lives in Washington, said in a Thursday phone interview. "I didn't choose to be gay anymore than straight people choose to be straight."
To those who would disagree with him, Field said, "You don't choose who you love."
Field is not alone in thinking that sexual orientation is a fixed element of a person. Whether homosexuality is innate or whether it is acquired -- the age-old nature versus nurture debate -- has long shaped the political and social discussion over gay rights.

Over the years, the genetically based argument has found increasing support among Americans, according to polls. More and more people now believe that homosexuality is a permanent, immutable part of a person, much like fingerprints or eye color.

According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Wednesday, 56 percent of Americans believe that gays and lesbians could not change their sexual orientation even if they wanted to do so -- the first time that a majority has held that belief regarding homosexuality since CNN first posed the question nearly 10 years ago.

The sampling error for the results is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

Six years ago, 45 percent of Americans responding to a CNN/USA/Gallup Poll said gays and lesbians could not change their sexual orientation. And in 1998, the number was 36 percent, according to a CNN/Time poll.

The latest poll results affirmed what many gay and lesbians see as a shift in attitude across the country toward homosexuality. Even in the face of state legislation that denies gays the right to marry or to form civil unions, more Americans are now accepting of homosexuality, gays and lesbians say.

The term, feeling natural being gay, is the best way to sum up who we are. So if we can't change, the only thing left is to change the perception straights have for us. And that is slowing changing to our favor.

Hoping everyone had a super spectacular Canada Day, and Independence Day. Anyone shoot off extra fireworks that we should know about?