"Same Gender Loving People - No. 4539"

"Lovers See The Possibilities Of The World Together..."

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.

"A Thought To Ponder..."

And it looks like the line is forming for a second glass of Kool-aid...

"The Views To Love..."

There's still time to celebrate love in the world...

"This Made Me Smile..."

This reminds me of my stag night before I got married...

It's actually a sad funny story... The night before my marriage to my husband, my straight, white best friend and work colleague told me he was going to take me out for a "gay stag night," and it was going to be just he and I. He said he was going to prove to me that he wasn't homophobic at all. So we went out for a nice steak dinner and then he said we were going to a gay club he'd found that advertised stripers and exotic dancers. Now this was a big deal, because he knew that I was (and still are) a big stick in the mud.  I had never been to any gay venues in my entire life, no clubs, no bars, not even a gay pride event.  So all that week, he'd geeked me up about my stag night and the fun we were going to have.  So after dinner, he drove us to this club, but when we got there, it was closed for remodeling, and that's the funny part..  We just went back home to my house, we had a couple of beers, he went home and then bright and early the next day he stood beside me as my best man at my wedding.  And to this day, I've never been in a gay bar or club.

The sad part of this story is not that I didn't get to see any spectacles on my stag night, but that this fellow who was at the time one of my closest friends, and in-fact, the first person outside my family who I came out to and who became a dear friend whose own wife lovingly referred to me as his "work husband" is no longer my friend... Back in 2015, he fell under the spell of Trumpism and became quite the "white nationalist" and a bit homophobic too. I remember patiently listening to all kinds of regurgitated hate speech and vitriol come out of my dear friend's mouth, always forgiving it while trying to persuade him of the truth. I tried to wait out this strange turn of events in our relationship in hopes that he'd come to his senses, but it never happened. After a while, we stopped visiting each other, then he stopped answering my calls and ignored my texts.  It then became hard to read his posts on FB, so I just stopped visiting FB altogether. Now, it's been at least 5 or 6 years since I've heard from him.  Strangely, one of the most prominent memories I have of him outside of that "stag night" was when he called me a few days before Trump's inauguration from outside the gates of Mar-a-Largo, telling me how proud he was to be so close to Trump.

I still love you, Mark

"The Artist's Corner..."

Matthew Lisk

What I Like About This: As far as I know, this work is untitled by the artist, but I would call it "Anticipation" because it reminds me of those moment that happen when you've decided with your partner that the time intimacy has arrived. I like the artist's use of color and light and the softness of the details allows the viewer to fill in the voids on the canvas of the mind.

"We Were Always There..."

What I Like About This:  As we see in many of these couple photos, all the signs of love are here... The tight grip of the smiling fellow around his partner's waist and the touching of heads and shoulders all reveal the truth of what we are seeing. And as we often note, we see some apprehension on the face of one of them (the fellow on the right). Sadly, he likely and rightly feared that this photo in the wrong hands could destroy their lives. And yet, they took this photo with perhaps some trusted and knowing friend behind the camera so that they might look back upon this day and their love, and unbeknownst to them, allow us to know in our day that, "we were always there."

"The GIFt Of Love..."

"Same Gender Loving People - No. 4538"

"Such Happiness Is Found Only In 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.

"A Thought To Ponder..."

Early Tuesday morning, well before dawn, police in Ohio fatally shot and killed a black man in his own bed just seconds after they opened his bedroom door...  "He may have had a vape pen in his hand."

Still not convinced...?

 

"Fear Eats the Soul"

"The Views To Love..."

What I Like About This: It's September 1st and summer is coming to an end, but although every season has its end, the seasons of true love endure forever.

"This Made Me Smile..."

"The Artist's Corner..."

"You Are Enough"

Ink and watercolor on paper

Brendan Sanborn

What I Like About This: In this work, Sanborn captures the pivotal moment in the life of every loving relationship when it's realized that indeed, love is reason enough.  I enjoy all of Brendan Sanborn's works.  He is known for his creative use of materials and interesting choices of media, often creating  his works on reclaimed pages from old books.  In the future, I'll feature some works he created using instant coffee as a media.