Lessons learned from kissing a straight boy

By MARK S. KING
DEC. 14, 2007

LAST NIGHT I kissed a straight guy full on the lips. Then he tenderly put his arms around me and kissed me back. Tonight I’m going to do it again.

The object of my affections is a man named Travis, and he plays my gay lover in the play “A Queer Carol” at Theatre Decatur.

At an early rehearsal, long before any kissing would ensue, the director motioned me aside to share some surprising words. “Let’s take our time working up to the kisses,” said the director. He lowered his voice a little. “Travis has never kissed a man. He’s straight.” It sounded like a condition.

And in a way, it was. It immediately colored how I acted around him, on stage and off. The play covers our courtship and as we rehearsed I felt another type of courtship happening. Was he watching me, thinking that’s the guy I have to kiss? Was I masculine enough? Did he think I was cute? Did he even care if I was attractive or not? Was he disgusted at the thought of touching me?

“So Travis…” I began. “You’re straight and you’ve never kissed a guy I hear.”“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “Sorry about that.” He was actually apologizing for being straight, and I felt like doing the same thing for being gay. “I guess it’s an issue for me but I’ll get more comfortable. I did a nude scene with a gay guy before, but I wasn’t playing gay and we didn’t kiss or anything.”

We’ve all learned a lot. I learned that if something got in the way of portraying a gay couple on stage, it wasn’t the straight man’s phobias.

It was mine.

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Florida High School fights Gay-Straight alliance group

Attorneys for the Okeechobee County School Board plan to use experts who will testify about the "negative health effects of homosexual sex" in their fight to stop the Gay-Straight Alliance from meeting at Okeechobee High School.



"This is the most rabidly homophobic response that the school board could have taken," American Civil Liberties Union attorney Robert Rosenwald said about a summary of the school board's planned witness testimony in an upcoming trial.


The ACLU represents the Gay-Straight Alliance of Okeechobee High School and former student Yasmin Gonzalez, who sued the school board a year ago, saying it violated federal law by allowing other clubs to meet on campus but not the alliance.


A judge has said the club can meet on school grounds while the case works its way through court. The trial is scheduled to start in March, but Rosenwald asked this week that the date be pushed back to September to allow more time to prepare.


The attorneys have argued that the Gay-Straight Alliance is a "sex-based club" that violates a Florida statute requiring schools to teach abstinence "while teaching the benefits of monogamous heterosexual marriage." However, in his April ruling allowing the club to meet at least temporarily on school grounds, U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore said the school board had failed to show that the Gay-Straight Alliance would expose students to obscene or explicit material.


Regardless of people's views on homosexuality, Okeechobee High School is obligated under federal law to allow the alliance to meet on school grounds.

MLK Family and friends gather to support GLBT rights

(Austin, TX) -- On October 7, 2007, Isaac Farris Jr. -- nephew of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. -- addressed a vigil organized by straight Atlantans who support equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans.

Malikah Berry, former assistant to Coretta Scott King, will also speak at the vigil. Berry is the Director of Community and Civic Engagement for Hands On Atlanta, which is a sponsor of the Atlanta vigil.

Prior to her death, Mrs. King spoke publicly in support of gay civil rights: "Gay and lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protections, whether by marriage or civil union," she said in a March 2004 speech.

October 11: National Coming Out day and Cyndi Lauper

PFLAG Launches 'Straight for Equality' on October 11

Cyndi Lauper will be urging straight America to speak out for Gay friends.

From October 11-14, hundreds of families and allies of GLBT people will be in Washington D.C., for the PFLAG National Convention, presented by IBM.

The national event marks the official launch of Straight for Equality, an entirely new project that aims to motivate the vast audience of fair-minded Americans who wish to more actively support equality in their daily lives.

Straight for Equality empowers people who may not have GLBT family members but who nonetheless want to curb homophobia in their daily lives. From speaking up when hearing an anti-gay joke, openly supporting equality in your work place to taking action to change anti-GLBT policies.

The PFLAG National Convention also will feature special guests such as the world's most widely syndicated columnist, Dear Abby, and the first-ever openly gay Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson.