I was just talking to Smallz and he tells me that Clay Aiken is apparently gay. It’s all over the news.
Didn’t see that one coming.
And I’m sure similar jokes are being made across the nation by just about everybody.
**
Also, Chris Crocker just released his first song and it’s available on iTunes. You can also listen to it on YouTube, realize it sucks, and just not waste 99 cents on it and download a good song instead. I recommend “Nikki Don’t Stop” by Low Millions.
** Start Actual Blog **
Remember how I wrote about going to the Farmers’ Market out in Urbana a few weeks ago? Well, I neglected to mention a certain event that happened on that very same morning. I have been collecting evidence about being “gay about town.”
I was walking around the market holding the hand of another dude (or brosky, as some might refer to them). We were just minding our own business looking at locally grown produce when all of a sudden this older homosexschull practically jogs up to us, “OH LOOK AT YOU GUYS! HOLDIN’ HANDS AT THE MAR-KUHT! AINT THAT CUTE!”
Truth be told, whenever I show affection to a brosky in public I get the feeling that the two of us are bound to be watched. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the market. The type of people who buy locally grown food tend to be liberal while the people who grow and sell the food are probably more on the conservative side. So there we were and the only person who cared about us holding hands in a public space was a gay guy.
Fast forward to last Saturday night. I was riding on a bus with my friend Roman to C St., the ever-famous gay bar of Champaign-Urbana. Roman had been visiting from Vienna and it was very important for me to show him the way gays in southern Illinois (don’t kid yourself, this is the south) go about their mating rituals. On the bus this large group of students entered, shouting, “Oh My God We’re Going to C Streeeeeet!”
They were pretty excited.
This girl, Ashley, approached Roman and me on the bus and asked where we were going. She became more excited when she found out we were going to the same bar.
“Wait! Are you guys boyfriends?!”
“No …. we’re just friends. We’re just going out to a bar.”
Enter Roman, “Yes, I am from Vienna. I just want to see what it’s like.”
“Oh my god you are like 100 times more cooler now!”
So there we were, not even midnight and already 100 times more cooler.
She explained to us how among her group they were all straight but whenever this one particular friend from out of town came to CU, they all would go to C St. She instantly became our friend for the next 2 minutes and gave us a hug goodbye when we jumped away from her group of breeding buddies.
Inside C St., the place was full of heterosexual students. Everyone was having a good time, and while it’s cool and all that straights exist, it just bugs me when they come into our bars and make out and stuff. It’s unnatural and I don’t think I should have to see it.
Fast forward even FURTHER into the future. I was on a date this evening with the aforementioned brosky, Cody, and we went to dinner and saw a movie and all that good stuff. When I drove Cody home we kissed at a stoplight. The guy in the car next to us gave us one of the dirtiest looks I could imagine.
Rewind to two years ago. My boyfriend Brad and I were walking home from somewhere and a guy standing on the balcony of a house shouted, “FAGGOT!” and threw a beer bottle at us, hitting Brad on the head.
Last Halloween, after yet another evening at C St., my friends and I went to Perkins to partake in some delicious late night mozzarella sticks, eggs, and chocolate shakes. The locals, inside Perkins on Halloween at 3 AM might I add, pulled me over to their table so they could ask me if my friends were supposed to be women. Based on the size of their bulges in their very exposed underwear, I went on a limb and told them no, that’s not what they were going for.
I’m really not sure where this town stands on the gays. I feel like I can cuddle up on the quad like all the straight couples are doing, but at the same time I feel I’m being stared at. The only way to stop the stares is to make it a common thing, I suppose. To stop hiding affection. I just don’t know how many beer bottles I want to risk having to deal with. How many would you?
Liam Reed: 1987 model, runs fairly well, few dents, starts in cold weather, no baggage, loves flea markets and canned soup. Send all hate mail, love mail, and sexual advances to withtongue@gmail.com
Comments
Kzmet (Kzmet) says:
(Posted September 25th, 2008 at 1:28 pm)
Also keep in mind, it may not always be about whether you are gay or not. I personally am not a big believer in public displays of affection. I don’t care if it is boy on girl; girl on girl; boy on boy, I really don’t care to see it.
Now the people screaming out nasty comments to you, well we just have to write that off do ignorance. I am a White Heterosexual Male….OH NOES….and some of the things that I see friends and other folks do and how they act and it sickens me.
I have actually cut friends loose because of how they act towards differents races and social groups. I am a firm believer in, “Ignorance breeds Ignorance”. Until some folks open their eyes and just see people for what we really are…..PEOPLE.
Stay strong.
Liamz (Liamz) says:
(Posted September 25th, 2008 at 8:26 pm)
Where I understand where you’re coming from with the public displays of affection, the beer bottle incident was inspired by two guys holding hands, not by kissing each other goodbye. It’s one thing to say showing affection like making out is a problem, but holding hands?
A few months ago I read about kids getting suspended from a school in Illinois because they hugged each other openly in the hallways.
Why is it that people crowd around and cheer when two people are fighting but turn their heads in disgust when they see two people kissing?
Kzmet (Kzmet) says:
(Posted September 26th, 2008 at 8:44 am)
As I said, there are a lot of ignorant people in the world. This is the cross that you and I and others like us must bear. You must bear the abuse that comes with it and I must bear the shame that these people are probably folks that I have as friends.
Can I put myself in your shoes? No. I can only sympathize with you and your friend’s plight and offer my apologies for all of the ignorant folks out there. Until the world starts making people pass a test to be a parent we are going to have ignorant people passing their beliefs down creating other ignorant people.
I don’t find affection disgusting, just don’t prefer to see people standing on the corners making out. I agree with what you are saying regarding the fighting and affection. Maybe it’s because we live in a world where bad things are easier to accept than things that are beautiful?
I have a hard time watching the news or reading a newspaper, because all that is there is the bad things that are happening. Where is the reports about kid’s who start up programs to help learning disabled children study? Where are the reports about the person who goes out of there way to help someone? They are few and far between, not because it does not happen…because it’s just not “Good News”.
Until we can paint the world in a happy light, we will only see the ugliness.
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Liam Reed
1987 model, runs fairly well, few dents, starts in cold weather, no baggage, loves flea markets and canned soup. Send all hate mail, love mail, and sexual advances to withtongue@gmail.com
Mike Consalvo (Mike Consalvo) says:
(Posted September 24th, 2008 at 9:52 pm)
I’m a firm believer that you should be able to act however you want, if that means holding hands or kissing in public, so be it, its nobody else’s business what 2 people do. And if straights can do it and its socially acceptable, then gays should be allowed to as well. All that being said, I have never been big into public displays of affection and don’t really like to see anybody doing it.
On a slightly different topic, glad to see you have a boyfriend. Go Liam!