Jamie and Chris hold hands in public like it’s nobody’s business. If you think about it, it really is nobody’s business. I admire them both for being so open about their relationship.
I’ve never been a public displays of affection kind of guy. This is because I’m an old gay and I’ve always been terrified that the people with pitchforks and torches would descend from the heavens and throw stones at us like that poor woman in the lottery, simply because my husband and I stole a whimsical glance that made us seem, well, gay. I know this is my own problem and that I am riddled with some sort of internal homophobia and quite frankly, I know it’s a big fault of mine, it’s a big hang up of mine and I’m desperately trying to get past it. There’s a lot of things I’m working on getting beyond, like eating scrambled eggs, but the open displays of affection is a biggie for me.
Tonight we attended a wedding reception populated with a lot of military folks. The son of one of my best friends married his bride. The son is in the Air Force, comes from an Air Force family and subsequently there were a lot of military uniforms with people wearing them and folks that looked obviously retired military. The ceremony was beautiful. The reception was lovely and when the DJ called for all the married couples to get on the floor I froze, I hesitated and I withdrew until several people convinced me to slow dance with my husband amongst all this brass.
Once I held Earl and danced with him, as the DJ weeded down the dancing crowd by the number of years of marriage, I was in heaven. The predictable fireworks flew around in my head and I fell in love with him all over again. It happens everyday and this time it happened in public.
No pitchforks. No torches. Not even a tiki lamp.
The world did not end. My eyes were opened and I felt like I stepped into a whole new existence.
The only time I ever held hands in public with boyfriends was when I lived in San Francisco…and even then there are places you don’t want to do it.
In Denver or in Phoenix? Don’t be ridiculous! I’ve seen younger folks doing it without townsfolk with torches and pitchforks appearing, but I still don’t feel comfortable doing it.
I’m still getting used to the idea. When Cub and Chris hold hands in public I’m still very watchful of folks around us because the concept of a gay couple holding hands in public is still very foreign to me. I think it’s great that they do it, I just have a deep-seeded worry about it that is taking me a while to shake off.