JUST WHAT is so special about a man who can hug and even kiss another man? Openly?
The dude who can do that and not be all giggly and gawky has a sense of his own self-awareness and a comfort level with one's self that is obvious and just as obviously others can't equal.
THE MAN WHO CAN BE OPENLY LOVING IS:
A man who is self-confident and secure in himself and his own sexuality so that he has no problem with displays of affection. IT IS ONLY THOSE WHO ARE UNSURE OF THEMSELVES and their own sexuality that have a problem with and usually showing affection of ANY kind TO ANYONE. A man who has issues with affection is normally no better at it with women than doing so with other men. It is a personality disorder more than a sexual one.
Any man who knows WHO HE IS AND LIKES WHO HE IS AND KNOWS that he doesn't give a FLYING FUCK what anyone else thinks of him (doesn't need their affirmation or approval even though he may enjoy receiving it). THIS is the dude who will be the happiest in life, the most successful and the most unhampered by social mores run amuck such as you find in the southern Middle East.
He will be the most unaffected by the attempts of others to make him feel as insecure as they do...especially those who want to control and manipulate for their own selfish interests RATHER than be encouraging and uplifting of another dude NO MATTER WHO he chooses to love.
I run into Pakistanis and Afghans all the time who HAVE managed to break free of the almost paralyzing spate of laws that the THEN-PURITANICAL Brits brought when they invaded the entire Middle East in the mid 1800's.
They LEFT the Middle East at the end of the 1860's but left a Puritan-infused legacy that continues to cripple countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan EVEN THOUGH the Brits themselves rescinded their own legal restrictions regarding sexuality and have never returned to them for over 150 years. They left these laws behind, deeming them undesirable and corrosive to human values and yet Pakistan has never reversed them even though they had a golden opportunity to do so during the Constitutional Convention in 1947.
In any event, those I know who have managed to break free of the TYRANNY of puritanism OR a mis-guided sense of their religion (not to be confused with FAITH), that their own CLERGY feels they can and DESERVE TO live under (meaning FREEDOM and SEXUAL FREEDOM that they then DENY to their congregations in BOTH Pakistan and Afghanistan) are truly inspiring. Their carving out of a horribly repressive culture the space they need to live the life they are meant to should be a clairon call to the entire region. We shall see.
But for those who have freed themselves they do honor to the word bravery and do so for the right reason. The desire to live in FREEDOM and see justice and equality given...TO ALL. They feel just as I do and just as most people in the developed world do...virtually without exception. FREEDOM IS NOT ONLY A PRIVILEGE, IT IS A FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT ACCORDED TO ALL BY OUR CREATOR AND BY MOST IF NOT ALL DULY-ELECTED GOVERNMENTS.
THE BILL I refer to is of course the American BILL OF RIGHTS and its counterparts in other countries. The document that along with our federal constitution says and mandates that ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL. Portugal, the UK, Spain, Indonesia, Canada, The US, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and many many others. YOU can SEE it in the actions of people like soccer star Cristiano Reynaldo of Portugal and Zayn Malik who is Pakistani but lives in the US and values the freedoms accorded here. Frankly almost NO country is as homophobia free as Brazil in all likelihood, but most of the rest of the world IS catching up.
Everyone it seems is TIRED of oppression and tyranny and denigration of their rights. Even in Pakistan and Afghanistan I am beginning to see progress. Yes, even there and many seem to be gaining ground in the fight to initiate, foster, and even encourage FREEDOM FOR EVERYONE...equality for the masses.
Brazil now has year-long waiting lists for people trying to go there to marry their same-sex partners. The demand is that great>>>
WELCOME to the 21st CENTURY while the southern Middle East languishes in a chronic perpetual state of division, civil rights denial, human rights abuse, HATRED and violence which continues seemingly because nobody in charge ever seems capable of compromise or negotiating or even trying to.
BUT THERE IS SOME PROGRESS BEING MADE AND I LOVE IT.
My family has fought for the principle of personal FREEDOM for literally HUNDREDS OF YEARS...and I am quietly optimistic.I am seeing many in the countries of the southern ME bravely coming out. MAKING THE CHOICE to do so, MAKING THE CHOICE FOR FREEDOM, NOT oppression. Putting MALE in their interest status in their profiles in FB, MY SPACE, and Twitter. Beginning EVEN TO LIVE more openly than ever before. Even WOMEN are ALSO beginning to be more open with their same-sex partners. Encouraging. IF they have progressive friends and/or family members, and especially if they live in the larger cities like Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar, Kabul, which have always been more open and progressive than the rural areas of the countries JUST LIKE THE U.S. Now there are also large LGBT organizations with THOUSANDS of members there to not only encourage but to help and protect when necessary.
BUT, at the same time all this good news is happening, and often paralleling other countries' struggle for equality progress, I RUN ALL THE TIME INTO...dudes who are so traumatized and fearful of being found out for who they really are inside that they cannot be EITHER openly affectionate or even PLAYFUL with others, especially other dudes. Privately sure. Publicly NO. THAT IS SAD AND SICK and they WILL BE SICK if they continue to allow themselves to be either repressed by others or self-denied because to continue to live your life as a lie inevitably leads to internal decay and usually premature death due to the cancerous effects of self-loathing and self-denial.
THAT IS NOT MY IDEA of a good time. THIS internal ROT will emulate and eventually lead to increased risks of cancer, heart disease, and stroke.
Sorry, I did not mean this to be a treatise on ME politics BUT IT IS THAT which is keeping the region so behind the rest of the world and the people also and MORE SO NOW. NOW people SEE others living free like they never could before and it elevates the frustration and hatred. WHO NEEDS THAT?
LOVE IS LOVE, and THAT is NOT MY IDEA. IT IS SCIENTIFIC FACT.
LOVE IS LOVE. YOU DON'T NEED TO BE IN LOVE TO LOVE OR TO BE AFFECTIONATE. JUST LOVE. PERIOD.
Yes, we have all gotten SO hung up on sex and sexual innuendo and sexual mores and sexual connotations and the like that we are MANY OF US becoming FROZEN by idiotic taboos fostered by others with agendas contrary to what is in the best interests of ALL of us. These Taboos are dangerous, destructive and repressive not to mention lucidrously unnecessary. Again, EVEN IF the Brits who came to the Middle East over 160+ years ago with this Puritanical bullshit in tow have long since tossed the crap out the window and not lived by the laws in question, WHY IN HELL would the Pakistanis and the Afghans continue to do so to their own detriment? HUH?
FOR GODS SAKE GIVE IT UP PEOPLE.
JUST LOVE. LOVE WITH ALL YOU GOT..WHOMEVER YOU CHOOSE. Each person will determine (should) who to love and how. It is NOT MY BUSINESS OR YOURS OR ANYONE ELSE'S.IT SHOULD BE UP TO EACH INDIVIDUAL. PERIOD. LOVE A GIRL, GUY, HORSE AND BUGGY. WHO GIVES A FUCK.
LOVE YOU SEE IS THE KEY THAT OPENS EVERY SINGLE DOOR TO THE WONDERS waiting for you. LOVE IS THE KEY AND THE DOOR AND THE WAY...and you might as well be DEAD to try to live without it. It is the song you should be singing, the shining sun, the ETERNAL LIFE that looms after this one is o'er. LOVE IS EVERY GOOD THING IN LIFE, engendering love IN YOU and FOR YOU and AROUND YOU...caring and affection.
LOVE FREES. HATE BINDS.
LOVE LOOSENS THE CHAINS, HATE PUTS THEM ON YOU.
LOVE CARES WHILE HATE IS SELFISH.
LOVE IS GODLY. HATE IS DEMONIZING.
LOVE IS FOOD FOR HE HEART.
HATE IS THE FUEL FOR EMPTINESS AND HEARTLESSNESS
LOVE IS OXYGEN FOR THE SPIRIT, HATE IS DEATH TO LIFE.
LOVE IS WATER FOR THE THIRSTY.
HATE IS LIKE SANDPAPER ON AN OPEN WOUND.
LOVE GIVES. HATE TAKES.
LOVE IS HEALING. HATE KILLS.
LOVE IS THE COMPLETE ABSENCE OF HATE
HATE IS THE COMPLETE ABSENCE OF LOVE
BIGOTRY OF ANY KIND IS HATRED THAT WILL EVENTUALLY KILL ITSELF AND ITS HUMAN HOST WHILE LOVE WILL CURE THE DEEPEST WOUNDS AND RESTORE HEALTH TO THE DEEPEST SCARS AND RESTORE THOSE
TO HEALTH FELLED BY MINDLESS PREJUDICE AND BIGOTRY.
IF YOU LOVE YOU CANNOT ALSO HATE and vice-versa
LOVE IS LIGHT. HATE IS DARKNESS
YOU CANNOT LOVE AND THEN PROJECT HATE SIMULANEOUSLY. THEY ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE.
LOVE IS THE ABSENCE OF THE DARK SIDE OF MAN
LOVE WILL WRAP YOU INSIDE ITSELF AND KISS YOU SOFTLY UNTIL YOU CAN FEEL ONLY LOVE AND JOY.
LOVE IS KIND. LOVE IS NEVER CRUEL OR HATEFUL.
LOVE IS THE BEST THING EVER.,.
since the invention of ICE CREAM.
LOL.
The dude who can do that and not be all giggly and gawky has a sense of his own self-awareness and a comfort level with one's self that is obvious and just as obviously others can't equal.
THE MAN WHO CAN BE OPENLY LOVING IS:
A man who is self-confident and secure in himself and his own sexuality so that he has no problem with displays of affection. IT IS ONLY THOSE WHO ARE UNSURE OF THEMSELVES and their own sexuality that have a problem with and usually showing affection of ANY kind TO ANYONE. A man who has issues with affection is normally no better at it with women than doing so with other men. It is a personality disorder more than a sexual one.
Any man who knows WHO HE IS AND LIKES WHO HE IS AND KNOWS that he doesn't give a FLYING FUCK what anyone else thinks of him (doesn't need their affirmation or approval even though he may enjoy receiving it). THIS is the dude who will be the happiest in life, the most successful and the most unhampered by social mores run amuck such as you find in the southern Middle East.
He will be the most unaffected by the attempts of others to make him feel as insecure as they do...especially those who want to control and manipulate for their own selfish interests RATHER than be encouraging and uplifting of another dude NO MATTER WHO he chooses to love.
I run into Pakistanis and Afghans all the time who HAVE managed to break free of the almost paralyzing spate of laws that the THEN-PURITANICAL Brits brought when they invaded the entire Middle East in the mid 1800's.
They LEFT the Middle East at the end of the 1860's but left a Puritan-infused legacy that continues to cripple countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan EVEN THOUGH the Brits themselves rescinded their own legal restrictions regarding sexuality and have never returned to them for over 150 years. They left these laws behind, deeming them undesirable and corrosive to human values and yet Pakistan has never reversed them even though they had a golden opportunity to do so during the Constitutional Convention in 1947.
In any event, those I know who have managed to break free of the TYRANNY of puritanism OR a mis-guided sense of their religion (not to be confused with FAITH), that their own CLERGY feels they can and DESERVE TO live under (meaning FREEDOM and SEXUAL FREEDOM that they then DENY to their congregations in BOTH Pakistan and Afghanistan) are truly inspiring. Their carving out of a horribly repressive culture the space they need to live the life they are meant to should be a clairon call to the entire region. We shall see.
But for those who have freed themselves they do honor to the word bravery and do so for the right reason. The desire to live in FREEDOM and see justice and equality given...TO ALL. They feel just as I do and just as most people in the developed world do...virtually without exception. FREEDOM IS NOT ONLY A PRIVILEGE, IT IS A FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT ACCORDED TO ALL BY OUR CREATOR AND BY MOST IF NOT ALL DULY-ELECTED GOVERNMENTS.
THE BILL I refer to is of course the American BILL OF RIGHTS and its counterparts in other countries. The document that along with our federal constitution says and mandates that ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL. Portugal, the UK, Spain, Indonesia, Canada, The US, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and many many others. YOU can SEE it in the actions of people like soccer star Cristiano Reynaldo of Portugal and Zayn Malik who is Pakistani but lives in the US and values the freedoms accorded here. Frankly almost NO country is as homophobia free as Brazil in all likelihood, but most of the rest of the world IS catching up.
Everyone it seems is TIRED of oppression and tyranny and denigration of their rights. Even in Pakistan and Afghanistan I am beginning to see progress. Yes, even there and many seem to be gaining ground in the fight to initiate, foster, and even encourage FREEDOM FOR EVERYONE...equality for the masses.
Brazil now has year-long waiting lists for people trying to go there to marry their same-sex partners. The demand is that great>>>
WELCOME to the 21st CENTURY while the southern Middle East languishes in a chronic perpetual state of division, civil rights denial, human rights abuse, HATRED and violence which continues seemingly because nobody in charge ever seems capable of compromise or negotiating or even trying to.
BUT THERE IS SOME PROGRESS BEING MADE AND I LOVE IT.
My family has fought for the principle of personal FREEDOM for literally HUNDREDS OF YEARS...and I am quietly optimistic.I am seeing many in the countries of the southern ME bravely coming out. MAKING THE CHOICE to do so, MAKING THE CHOICE FOR FREEDOM, NOT oppression. Putting MALE in their interest status in their profiles in FB, MY SPACE, and Twitter. Beginning EVEN TO LIVE more openly than ever before. Even WOMEN are ALSO beginning to be more open with their same-sex partners. Encouraging. IF they have progressive friends and/or family members, and especially if they live in the larger cities like Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar, Kabul, which have always been more open and progressive than the rural areas of the countries JUST LIKE THE U.S. Now there are also large LGBT organizations with THOUSANDS of members there to not only encourage but to help and protect when necessary.
BUT, at the same time all this good news is happening, and often paralleling other countries' struggle for equality progress, I RUN ALL THE TIME INTO...dudes who are so traumatized and fearful of being found out for who they really are inside that they cannot be EITHER openly affectionate or even PLAYFUL with others, especially other dudes. Privately sure. Publicly NO. THAT IS SAD AND SICK and they WILL BE SICK if they continue to allow themselves to be either repressed by others or self-denied because to continue to live your life as a lie inevitably leads to internal decay and usually premature death due to the cancerous effects of self-loathing and self-denial.
THAT IS NOT MY IDEA of a good time. THIS internal ROT will emulate and eventually lead to increased risks of cancer, heart disease, and stroke.
Sorry, I did not mean this to be a treatise on ME politics BUT IT IS THAT which is keeping the region so behind the rest of the world and the people also and MORE SO NOW. NOW people SEE others living free like they never could before and it elevates the frustration and hatred. WHO NEEDS THAT?
LOVE IS LOVE, and THAT is NOT MY IDEA. IT IS SCIENTIFIC FACT.
LOVE IS LOVE. YOU DON'T NEED TO BE IN LOVE TO LOVE OR TO BE AFFECTIONATE. JUST LOVE. PERIOD.
Yes, we have all gotten SO hung up on sex and sexual innuendo and sexual mores and sexual connotations and the like that we are MANY OF US becoming FROZEN by idiotic taboos fostered by others with agendas contrary to what is in the best interests of ALL of us. These Taboos are dangerous, destructive and repressive not to mention lucidrously unnecessary. Again, EVEN IF the Brits who came to the Middle East over 160+ years ago with this Puritanical bullshit in tow have long since tossed the crap out the window and not lived by the laws in question, WHY IN HELL would the Pakistanis and the Afghans continue to do so to their own detriment? HUH?
FOR GODS SAKE GIVE IT UP PEOPLE.
JUST LOVE. LOVE WITH ALL YOU GOT..WHOMEVER YOU CHOOSE. Each person will determine (should) who to love and how. It is NOT MY BUSINESS OR YOURS OR ANYONE ELSE'S.IT SHOULD BE UP TO EACH INDIVIDUAL. PERIOD. LOVE A GIRL, GUY, HORSE AND BUGGY. WHO GIVES A FUCK.
LOVE YOU SEE IS THE KEY THAT OPENS EVERY SINGLE DOOR TO THE WONDERS waiting for you. LOVE IS THE KEY AND THE DOOR AND THE WAY...and you might as well be DEAD to try to live without it. It is the song you should be singing, the shining sun, the ETERNAL LIFE that looms after this one is o'er. LOVE IS EVERY GOOD THING IN LIFE, engendering love IN YOU and FOR YOU and AROUND YOU...caring and affection.
LOVE FREES. HATE BINDS.
LOVE LOOSENS THE CHAINS, HATE PUTS THEM ON YOU.
LOVE CARES WHILE HATE IS SELFISH.
LOVE IS GODLY. HATE IS DEMONIZING.
LOVE IS FOOD FOR HE HEART.
HATE IS THE FUEL FOR EMPTINESS AND HEARTLESSNESS
LOVE IS OXYGEN FOR THE SPIRIT, HATE IS DEATH TO LIFE.
LOVE IS WATER FOR THE THIRSTY.
HATE IS LIKE SANDPAPER ON AN OPEN WOUND.
LOVE GIVES. HATE TAKES.
LOVE IS HEALING. HATE KILLS.
LOVE IS THE COMPLETE ABSENCE OF HATE
HATE IS THE COMPLETE ABSENCE OF LOVE
BIGOTRY OF ANY KIND IS HATRED THAT WILL EVENTUALLY KILL ITSELF AND ITS HUMAN HOST WHILE LOVE WILL CURE THE DEEPEST WOUNDS AND RESTORE HEALTH TO THE DEEPEST SCARS AND RESTORE THOSE
TO HEALTH FELLED BY MINDLESS PREJUDICE AND BIGOTRY.
IF YOU LOVE YOU CANNOT ALSO HATE and vice-versa
LOVE IS LIGHT. HATE IS DARKNESS
YOU CANNOT LOVE AND THEN PROJECT HATE SIMULANEOUSLY. THEY ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE.
LOVE IS THE ABSENCE OF THE DARK SIDE OF MAN
LOVE WILL WRAP YOU INSIDE ITSELF AND KISS YOU SOFTLY UNTIL YOU CAN FEEL ONLY LOVE AND JOY.
LOVE IS KIND. LOVE IS NEVER CRUEL OR HATEFUL.
LOVE IS THE BEST THING EVER.,.
since the invention of ICE CREAM.
LOL.
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