Monday, September 21, 2009

My lover, my friend, my...


Friends, lovers and all things in between

via Toronto Star, by Brent Ledger

Many years ago, I slept with a stranger and gained a best friend.

They were not the same people, the stranger and the future friend. In fact, they were lovers, posing as roommates and already on their way to something even more tenuous, which meant it was an awkward first meeting, but somehow the second guy and I became friends and have remained so ever since.

It may sound a strange way to meet people but it's not so unusual in the gay world.

It's so not unusual that I sometimes fear my life has gone mainstream. Just the other night, a very campy gay character on the second-generation TV mystery Inspector Lewis explained a longstanding friendship by saying "Clumsy one-night stand ... which turned into a lifelong friendship."

Friends don't get much attention these days. Yet until the rise of the gay marriage brigades, and the subsequent devaluing of non-sexual relationships, friendship may have been the key gay relationship. Lord knows what David and Jonathan were up to in the Old Testament, but they certainly were tight.

Read the rest.


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