Stonewall Riots and Pride Marches

[California Dolphin]

Originally Posted by kumu

I think many guys have gay impulses they are not comfortable with. Go to a baseball game or football game and watch the guys after they have had a few beers, its real gay, hands and arms all over each other. With the impulse right there seeing attractive guys in speedos or otherwise can make a lot of guys uncomfortable. A taboo is as strong as it needs to be. If the natural drive for male male contact weren't as strong as it is there wouldn't be any need for such strong taboos against it. Maybe the strongest taboo of all. So when a straight guy sees a guy he is attracted to in a skimpy revealing little suit or otherwise, it can be very disturbing, uncomfortable, for him. A guy realizing he is turned on by another guy can shatter his image of himself.

Now that you mentioned it, I know the owners of one of the bathhouses here in the S.F. area and he seems to think that a lot of the guys who patronize the club are actually straight men who are looking for gay sex "On the downlow".

The evidence for his theory is that when guys check in at the front window and open their wallets, the clerk often sees photos of what appear to be their girl friends -and in many cases- photos of their wife and children!!!

Guys who are uncertain of their sexuality are petrified by the thought of anyone having public knowledge of their urges so they chose to remain in the closet and sneak out to bathhouses instead of being "open and out".

[kumu]

Reminds me of a total classic. There was a guy who claimed Jesus had 'cured' him of his homosexuality. But about once a month he'd go to a gay bath house just to remind himself of how horrible homosexuality was.

Then there was the San Diego preacher who preached against being gay. A friend said he saw the guy regularly at a bath house. When the preacher passed away of AIDS his obit stated he caught the disease during a transfusion. Even in death, a life based on lies. Such a strong taboo!