"Love Is Freedom... Live Fearlessly"
Saturday, October 31, 2015
"And The Truth Shall Set You Free..."
Joe Williams
Pink News
October 29, 2015
Donovan Gutierrez and his fiancé Eric Alvarado were already fathers when they met – each having a child of their own from previous relationships.
Both men admit that they desperately wanted to have children whilst still young – so each made the difficult decision to get married to women and start a family, even though they knew they were gay.
Unsurprisingly, neither marriage lasted, and the pair both ended up getting divorced.
The men describe having to adapt to the world as openly gay men – including coming out to their parents and children. They also open up about their ex-wives and the custody battles that ensued.
“It becomes difficult, especially when it comes to communication,” Donovan says. “My parents still argue and they’ve been divorced for 30 years.”
However, after the pair met online, their solitary struggles ended as they turned to each other for support.
Eric soon moved to California to be with Donovan and the couple decided to get married – with the full support of Donovan’s 10-year-old son, Desi.
“Why don’t you make it official?” he asked the pair, after hitting it off with Eric’s 10-year-old daughter, PK.
“They have a good, strong place in our lives,” Eric says about the soon to be step-siblings. “I feel like they can be themselves.”
We’re really blessed that they got along so well.”
Donovan and Eric say this is just the beginning of their new family – saying they hope to adopt more children in the future.
“We wanted a traditional family per se,” shares Eric. “I’m really looking forward to it. The way I’m looking at it, we’re starting from step one.”
The couple shared their story with Gays With Kids – an organisation designed to help gay dads navigate fatherhood, that often showcases stories about same-sex couples to help shine a light on their family life.
The group recently shared an adorable video depicting the day in the life of two gay fathers.
The video – which saw the pair gain an online fandom – captures the average Sunday routine for an adorable New York based family; couple Corey and Rocco, and their young son Forge.
"Selfie Love..."
"Selfie Love" - those beautiful, grainy, out-of-focus self-pics that capture the truth of true love...
"Love and Life's Journeys..."
I fell in love with these images from the very first time that I saw them. There is something incredibly familiar and comforting in recognizing not only the love between Richard and Seth, but also the rigors of travel and the occasional weary eyes and tiredness that we all fall prey to. Moreover, these photos reveal an intimacy and comfortableness that one finds only when two people are truly in love... They reveal "love and life's journeys."
Richard Renaldi was born in Chicago in 1968. He received his BFA in photography from New York University in 1990. Exhibitions of his photographs have been mounted in galleries and museums throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe. In 2006 Renaldi's first monograph, Figure and Ground, was published by the Aperture Foundation. His second monograph, Fall River Boys, was released in 2009. Richard Renaldi is the founder and publisher of Charles Lane Press."We Were Always There..."
"Standing under the gun, we didn't realize how plainly you could see that we were in love..."
"It's True, Lovers Do Start To Look Alike..."
Amongst gay couples, it's often referred to as "A Boyfriend Twin"
"While you may be familiar with the old saying, “opposites attract,” in reality, what the heart wants is someone who resembles its owner and that resemblance increases the longer two lovebirds stay together.
University of Michigan psychologist Robert Zajonc conducted an experiment to test this phenomenon. He analyzed photographs of couples taken when they were newlyweds and photographs of the same couples taken 25 years later.
The results showed that the couples had grown to look more like each other over time. And, the happier that the couple said they were, the more likely they were to have increased in their physical similarity."
Read more about this interesting phenomenon here...
"Fear Eats the Soul"
"Same Gender Loving People - No. 2169"
"When The One You Love Comes Home..."
Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.
"The Truth In A Dance..."
Pride.com
Yezmin Villarreal
October 30, 2015
Two vaqueros went viral on Facebook today after someone shared a video of the duo dancing cumbia-style at a party. This type of dance is usually performed by a man and a woman, but because this video featured two guys — dressed in traditional cowboy outfits dancing, and bending traditional gender norms — it went crazy on Facebook.
Their moves are completely amazing, and most of the people who commented asked for lessons. One lady even wrote, "I want a boyfriend who can dance as well as them." Maybe they should start a school for bad dancers and capitalize on their viral success?
Jordan Barajas, one of the men dancing in the video spoke to PRIDE, and said that since the video took off unexpectedly, he received a rush of friend requests and messages on Facebook. The messages vary, but he says that "many people express that they are not in favor of it, but that we dance very well, and our charisma changes their way of thinking, and it makes me feel good that I am able to make a difference."
Although most of the Facebook comments are positive, there are people leaving homophobic messages. But, Barajas says if he was given the chance, he would tell those people: "Before you judge anyone, it's better to treat everyone like a human being. I see dance as an art form, and I respect every human being that I cross paths with."
Watch the video below!
Cuanto te llevas a tu compadre de fiesta :)Like mis vaqueros
Posted by Yo Soi de Rancho & Que on Thursday, October 29, 2015
Friday, October 30, 2015
"Same Gender Loving People - No. 2168"
"Only True Love Lasts..."
Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.
"The Truth About The Freedom To Love..."
The Veterans Home of Chula Vista made history when it hosted its first same-sex wedding ceremony.
The Gaily Grind
September 17, 2015
95-year-old World War II veteran, John Banvard, married his boyfriend, 67-year-old Vietnam War veteran, Gerard Nadeau, at the senior living facility where they have lived for the last three years.
The couple, who have been together for over 20 years, decided to get married after the Supreme Court’s actions earlier this year, which allowed same-sex couples to marry.
“We were waiting on the Supreme Court to make that decision,” said Banvard.
They were joined by many of their friends who live at the veteran’s home.
“The world is changing, we have to go along with it,” said one guest.
Chula Vista’s facility director, Neal Asper, said news of two men getting married at the VA home was not well received by everyone. Residents held a town hall meeting at the VA home to address concerns from other residents.
“It’s been somewhat controversial,” said Asper. “I told them, they have the right to get married here just like everybody else.”
Fox5 spoke to one resident who said while he did not agree with Banvard and Nadeau’s celebration of their love for each other, he supported their legal right to do so.
“I just know that it’s against my faith and my religion, but as Americans they have a right to do what they want to do,” he said.
The newlyweds told Fox5 that they hope the wedding will encourage other elderly couples to do the same.
*******
"Fear Eats the Soul"
"The Truth About The Freedom To Love..."
Although there are yet more freedoms and rights to be won, this summer we won the freedom to love and the world will never be the same again...
"Fear Eats the Soul"
"The Poet's Corner..."
The Truth About Sir Walter Raleigh and "The Passionate Sheppard..."?
White Crane Institute
Legendary English writer, poet, courtier and explorer. He was responsible for establishing the second English colony in the New World (after Newfoundland was established by Sir Humphrey Gilbert nearly one year previously, August 5 1583), on June 4, 1584, at Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina. When the third attempt at settlement failed, the ultimate fate of the colonists was never authoritatively ascertained, and it became known as "The Lost Colony."
The question for us here, though, is this: Were Sir Walter Raleigh and Christopher Marlowe lovers?
Don’t laugh. It is possible, especially when so little is known about both. For many years, this provocative possibility has been suggested, even though it is based entirely on speculation. Marlowe wrote a poem titled, “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love,” which begins with the charming and famous invitation “Come live with me and be my love.” A twin poem, “The Nymph’s Reply to The Shepherd,” appeared shortly thereafter, and there is little doubt that it was written by Raleigh out of love for Marlowe. The response, of course, is typically coy (Well, no, what do you think I am, but of course you know I mean yes when I say no, and you aren’t really thinking of taking my virginity with that big thing, are you, you beast, but if you don’t I’ll die, etc.).
It’s probably one of the best No-but-I-really- mean-Yes poems in the language, at least until it was answered by Marvell in “To His Coy Mistress”: Look, if you don’t screw now, when are you going to do it? In the grave? So shut up and put out! — Hooray for Marvell.
Christopher Marlowe
“The Passionate Shepherd to His Love “
1599
Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
Woods, or steepy mountain yields.
And we will sit upon rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant poises,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;
A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;
A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs;
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.
The shepherds' s swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.
Sir Walter Raleigh
“The Nymph’s Reply to The Shepherd”
1599
If all the world and love were young,
And truth in every shepherd' s tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move
To live with thee and be thy love.
Time drives the flocks from field to fold,
When rivers rage and rocks grow cold;
And Philomel becometh dumb;
The rest complains of cares to come.
The flowers do fade, and wanton fields
To wayward winter reckoning yields:
A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall.
The gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses,
Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies
Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten,—
In folly ripe, in reason rotten.
Thy belt of straw and ivy buds,
Thy coral clasps and amber studs,
All these in me no means can move
To come to thee and be thy love.
But could youth last and love still breed,
Had joys no date nor age no need,
Then these delights my mind might move
To live with thee and be thy love.
"To His Coy Mistress"
Had we but world enough and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down, and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love’s day.
Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side
Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the flood,
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires and more slow;
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.
But at my back I always hear
Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found;
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song; then worms shall try
That long-preserved virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust;
The grave’s a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.
Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may,
And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour
Than languish in his slow-chapped power.
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Through the iron gates of life:
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.
Thursday, October 29, 2015
"We Were Always There..."
"For more than 50 years, I've gazed at his photo wishing
we'd been brave enough to trust in our love..."
"Same Gender Loving People - No. 2167"
"Nothing Warms The Heart Like Love..."
Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.
"The Truth About Love..."
1. You two can sit together in silence for hours and be absolutely content.
2. They accept your weirdness, and vice versa.
3. They always know how to make you smile when you’re having a rough day.
4. You two have your own sense of humor that no one else understands… and you’re OK with that.
5. You feel like the luckiest person every morning when you wake up next to them.
6. And at the end of each day, you can hardly WAIT to see them.
7. They go out of their way to include you in their favorite hobbies, because it’s just better when you’re around.
8. You’re always on the same page when it comes to a themed costume.
9. They’re your ultimate support system, both literally and figuratively.
10. The tiniest gestures still make your heart pound out of your chest.
11. No matter how big or small of a tiff you have, you always make it work.
12. Your pet approves of them… which we all know is the ultimate test.
13. They do and say the most romantic things for absolutely no reason.
14. Really, you two are just inseparable.
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