What’s in a Name?

California overturns gay marriage Ban; It is the 2nd state to allow gay marriage

JULIET

O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.
…

‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What’s Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.

ROMEO
I take thee at thy word:
Call me but love, and I’ll be new baptized;
Henceforth I never will be Romeo.

William Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet; Act II.

On Pigs and Piegons

Christopher Rice

“That’s not what I do. I might be more open to that label if I hadn’t introduced ensemble casts of characters. Granted, A Density of Souls is as close to a gay book as you can get. It revolves around a character’s homosexuality and others are described in terms of their reaction to the one character’s sexuality. In that sense it’s at the core of the book. The Snow Garden is about identity. With this book, I’m trying to shrug off the term “gay” author.”

Why can’t we get over this pigheaded particular/general dichotomy? The author, quite understandably, avoids getting pigeonholed, but can we gainsay the importance of advocating or advancing a particular respectable cause?

Twitch

It happened up at the family cottage of all places. I met him when I was swimming in the lake. He was as good a swimmer as I was and we began talking when we decided to dry off on the beach. The conversation turned to sex as it always does between guys. He was wearing a skimpy bathing suit and I was wearing cut off jeans. I noticed his bulge expanding as we continued chatting. Suddenly, my dick twitches and starts expanding.

Papillon

Rudolf Nureyev (1938-1993)

Happy is the lover who works out naked
And then goes home to sleep all day with a beautiful boy.

Theognis of Megara (fl. 6th century BC)

A Mouth to Own

And ye Megarians, at Nesaea dwelling,
Expert at rowing, mariners excelling,
Be happy ever! for with honors due
Th’ Athenian Diocles, to friendship true
Ye celebrate. With the first blush of spring
The youth surround his tomb: there who shall bring
The sweetest kiss. whose lip is Purest found,

Back to his mother goes with garlands crowned.
Nice touch the arbiter must have indeed,
And must, methinks, the blue-eyed Ganymede
Invoke with many prayers—a mouth to own
True to the touch of lips, as Lydian stone
To proof of gold—which test will instant show
The pure or base, as money changers know.

Theocritus

[describing a local kissing contest for boys]

Their Beginning

Their Beginning

Their illicit pleasure has been fulfilled.
They get up and dress quickly, without a word.
They come out of the house separately, furtively;
and as they move off down the street a bit unsettled,
it seems they sense that something about them betrays
what kind of bed they’ve just been lying on.
But what profit for the life of the artist:
tomorrow, the day after, or years later, he’ll give voice
to the strong lines that had their beginning here.

Constantine P. Cavafy

Bacchanal

A Louis Vuitton ad

Def shy, dolce, rain, steam, down, screech. I whispered, flirted.
And he got back, [screech] “let it be.”
Tender, , O tender, owl, hand, velvet, short, and he looked down, coffee, cold, night, out
He, like me, likes me. “Man,” I chuckled, “You are a sight!” [hush]
Wade, soap, gimme, bruise, wetter, shy
Shimmer
The next bar wasn’t much better, though a little bit busier.
What are you doing?

Zane

Then happy I, that loved and am beloved

Oscar Wilde

`He began by pointing out that the young man to whom Shakespeare addressed these strangely passionate poems must have been somebody who was a really vital factor in the development of his dramatic art, and that this could not be said either of Lord Pembroke or Lord Southampton. Indeed, whoever he was, he could not have been anybody of high birth, as was shown very clearly by the 25th Sonnet, in which Shakespeare contrasts himself with those who are great princes’ favourites,”

says quite frankly—’

1. Let those who are in favour with their stars
Of public honour and proud titles boast,
Whilst I, whom fortune of such triumph bars,
Unlook’d for Joy in that I honour most

Oscar Wilde, 1889. “The Portrait of Mr. W.H.” 

Blistering

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Kurt Brown

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair some time declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

William Shakespeare. Sonatas

Semblance

Abercrombie and Fitch; Carlson Twins (Kyle and Lane)

Jack: Well, my name is Ernest in town and Jack in the country, and the cigarette case was given to me in the country.

Algernon: Yes, but that does not account for the fact that your small Aunt Cecily, who lives at Tunbridge Wells, calls you her dear uncle. Come, old boy, you had much better have the thing out at once.

Jack: My dear Algy, you talk exactly as if you were a dentist. It is very vulgar to talk like a dentist when one isn’t a dentist. It produces a false impression,

Algernon: Well, that is exactly what dentists always do. Now, go on! Tell me the whole thing. I may mention that I have always suspected you of being a confirmed and secret Bunburyist; and I am quite sure of it now.

Jack: Bunburyist? What on earth do you mean by a Bunburyist?

Oscar Wilde, 1985. The Importance of Being Earnest.