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Our most gracious host, Timmy, has asked repeatedly this past little while, through one thread or another, to hear from the collected Membership at "A Place Of Safety".
I've been absent for some weeks, and upon my return, and having reviewed several dozen threads created in the interval not-with-standing Timmy's pleading, I see only the usual suspects responding, saving the addition of one or two new Registered Users, and a handful of lesser known souls like myself who seem to ooze out of the woodwork from time to time.
Timmy needs forthright, and constructive, answers to a variety of questions he has asked; and the responses rightfully should come from those he, and we collectively, seldom if ever at all hear from.
You are the many hundreds (and in all probability, thousands) of visitors hidden anonymously in the shadows.
I'm not at all too sure, and I'm certain Timmy will correct me if I'm wrong, that this Forum still accepts "Guest" posts to ongoing threaded topics. I seem to recall it used to. If it still does, please reply to this thread, tell us about yourself: your age, your gender, where in the World you call home and, in a paragraph or two, how you discovered A Place Of Safety and why you continue to come here, and in a nut shell just what this Forum has, and continues, to mean to you.
If "Guest" posts should not be possible, send Timmy an e-Mail (links are to be found all over his web-site and this Forum) and tell him what your needs are, and how he, and we collectively, may be of assistance to you.
With convergence, and emerging new media, and ease of access through My Space, You Tube, Facebook, Twitter, Delicious and Lord only knows how many successive others, anyone can create (or join) blogs on a widely disparate group of subjects; but, and this is the nub of it all, "Do they best service your needs, and your unique gay-, lesbian-, bisexual- or transgendered-related interests, and just how does A Place Of Safety fit into your perception of its' relevance to your needs?"
I'll start the ball rolling.
I'm 59 years old, reside in Toronto, Canada. I have lived openly as a gay man throughout the greater majority of my teen-aged and adult life. I've been coming here for the better part of this decade having discovered Timmy's web-site, and its' Story Shelf through links I found on his first foray in online activism at "voy.com". Sadly, Voy and its' many Forums are long gone; but, the spirit Timmy engendered in that first venture endures to this very day at "iomfats.org". Whilst I've suffered none of the angst and turmoil that many who visit here may have with regard to their sexuality, I've, from time-to-time, contibuted vignette's (generally as an aide-memoire and response to another's question), from my own life.
I discovered fellowship of a kind I found no where else, and trust me, I've looked high and low, through the many supposed clubs at "voy.com", "excite.com", "lycos.com", "yahoo.com", "talkcity.com", "communityzero.com" and through myriad self-help (and dating) sites like "gay.com", "flirt.com", "gcruise.com" and a host of others, including but not limited to the most cutting edge of today's new media.
Through it all, I have returned with some frequency to A Place Of Safety, and paraphrasing Tom Hanks in the movie Sleepless In Seattle, I found a home here, with that being a home not like any other I'd ever known.
Yes, the face of the Forum has changed, as have the faces that have sought comfort and shelter here; we no longer seem to discuss to the same degree the stories Timmy has so carefully cultivated from his ever growing list of Authors as we once had done; nor do the Authors themselves appear to discuss their work with any frequency. Yes, those most often creating threads, or replying to them, seem to be often disproportionate to a far greater degree than I might have supposed, or believed possible 10 years ago, but then again, I'm ten years older too. Yes, the most pressing difficulties facing our LGBT visitors have largely been mitigated by the times, and more enlightened attitudes, but we do have difficulties we continue to grapple with, and as likely as not, continue to be uncertain of just where to take our questions, and whether answers do truly exist for our many issues. Gone are the many, and varied, group chat sessions on AIM, Yahoo or MSN; but, that given larger concerns over abuse, power and control, and child pornography, is not a bad thing. Regardless, Facebook and Twitter, and Texting seem to have filled that void admirably anyway.
And, yes, as one other has pointed out in reply to one of Timmy's pleadings, there does seem of late to be a large number of threads dealing with violence to gays; but, with 24/7/365 minute-by-minute and blow-by-blow coverage in the sundry news media of these occurrences that to is to be expected, and is of some continuing relevance to concerns our visitors may have in their own lives.
So there we have me; now let us hear from you!
Warren C. E. Austin
The Gay Deceiver
Toronto, Canada
"... comme recherché qu'un délice callipygian"
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