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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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In the USA the so called christians are up in arms about homosexuals having the right to marry. In Uganda they have only just decided not to kill us. And in Austria, in what appears to be a Roman Catholic nation, they have just approved civicl partnership for homosexuals. Not marriage, but not "not marriage". http://www.365gay.com/news/austrian-parliament-oks-gay-civil-unions/
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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... and those which I've been most interested in having an answer for are namely:
1) "Why is it that the Leadership of much of the so-called Christian-based faith, as is too the case with many (although not all) of the World's other leading religions, so vested in of itself with the topic of homosexuality?"
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2) "What is it about the topic that tears apart the very fabric (the hearts and minds, as it were) of that society when it should ever be broached?"
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3) "Why do they even have their collective shorts-in-a-knot, when it's more often as not, not even a topic on the radar of the general rank and file within their own following?"
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To add some context to the foregoing, I remember, to this day, vividly my personal turmoil and fear, which frankly had reached the point of cold-sweats and nausea, when in 1966 I sat down my "one" best friend in all the world in my parent's drawing-room, uncharacteristically handing him one of two beer that I had held in my hand, saying to him that I had something very serious to discuss with him. I hovered around him nervously, wavering and waffling, and otherwise beat around the bush with a preamble revealing that I truly had no idea how he was going to respond at all, and that the mere thought of this forthcoming discussion had been literally tearing me apart for weeks.
Paul blankly looked at me and told me "For God's sake simply spit it out."
I did, blurting out "Paul I'm queer."
Without a beat, he looked at me with his somewhat crooked smile, and that delightful twinkle in his eye, and remarked "So what else is new. I've known that since forever. Now sit down and have that beer with me."
Paul's family had emigrated from Poland, and were Lutheran and probably not the norm for then Polish society which would have been I suppose, Roman-catholic.
His mother taught me to make Oatmeal Toffee squares from a recipe that had been handed down for generations within her family, and a recipe that I continue to use several times a year.
His father, "something" to do with the then Ontario Workman's Compensation Board (although no-one ever really knew for sure because he would never, ever discuss it and it would be 10-years or more before I could confirm it) remarked simply when asked what he did for a living "That he was a spy." This same man's response to whatever he may have been doing at the time anyone asked him would be "I'm sewing buttons on ice cream."
I speak of all this some 50-years after-the-fact solely to emphasize the normalcy of my life, and what prevailed at the time of probably what was the most serious crisis I faced in my then young life.
You see, these plain and simple folk, perhaps religious, perhaps not, going about their business day-to-day, each and every day, couldn't have given a damn one way or the other about mine, or anyone else's sexuality other than their own. Mine mattered not a jot to them, nor did it matter, nor has it mattered, to the many others in the interval should they have chanced upon that knowledge.
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I ask, in closing, "If it mattered not then, why now?"
Warren C. E. Austin
The Gay Deceiver
Toronto, Canada
[Updated on: Fri, 11 December 2009 12:52]
"... comme recherché qu'un délice callipygian"
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"1) "Why is it that the Leadership of much of the so-called Christian-based faith, as is too the case with many (although not all) of the World's other leading religions, so vested in of itself with the topic of homosexuality?""
I have taken the liberty of purloining that question of Warren's and forwarding to The Vatican, The World Baptist Conference, Patriarch Kirill, Head of the Russian Orthodox Church, and finally to Pastor Rick Warren. It should be very interesting to see the "official" spin on that question.
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Macky
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Really getting into it |
Location: USA
Registered: November 2008
Messages: 973
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Woo Hoo! WTG Brody!
Macky
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brothers to dwell together in unity!
Ps 133:1 NASB
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Macky
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Really getting into it |
Location: USA
Registered: November 2008
Messages: 973
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Gee I like your stories Warren.
So first you told a close friend.
That will be good for the new guy to hear, plus anyone else here who is considering coming out.
After 57 years in the closet, I told my best friend too; my wife.
What's the next step?
Macky
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brothers to dwell together in unity!
Ps 133:1 NASB
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... but, my "best" friend.
The one, and only, real buddy I've ever had; the fellow with whom I chummed around through every waking moment when not otherwise engaged with family chores, studies, and scheduled engagements; and coincidentally, the only youth of my then teen-aged acquaintance with whom I at that juncture never, ever, had fooled around in the remotest sexual manner. This, not because I didn't fancy him, as I simply adored him; but, rather because I was terrified of losing him entirely were I to make an absolute fool of myself, and be wrong in assuming he might fancy me too.
Ironic that really, as he and I soon thereafter went on to frequently take considerable satisfaction and fulfillment in our pleasuring one another at every nascent opportunity.
Paul became the steadying influence in my then chaotic world, anchoring what would become the foundation for what would soon evolve into the young man that a slim yet toned, hesitant and awkward, 6-foot and three-inch, red-headed Mormon youth named Jon would more than a year later sweep of his feet at the World's then first, and at that time only, Universal and International Exposition (expo'67) held in the Western Hemisphere at Montréal in 1967. That youth Jon first saw, and the man he was later to become, Paul is in large part responsible for.
The foregoing, in addition to what became the second stage in my over-all coming out, as has been discussed elsewhere here at A Place Of Safety, perhaps should really be dealt with in its' own thread dealing solely with "Coming Out" strategies. Maybe another of our membership would like to start it for us?
Warren C. E. Austin
The Gay Deceiver
Toronto, Canada
[Updated on: Fri, 11 December 2009 12:56]
"... comme recherché qu'un délice callipygian"
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I think that several of the larger questions here ... 
Macky, not just a "close" friend ... 
