Sunday, October 17, 2010

AN ANSWER. . . . partially

Blogger JustinO'Shea said...
DUUUUHHHHH !

WHOA THERE !
While I was showering I was thinking about various stuff. . .and oddly enough about what I had written to Gary and my friends, the Readers. . .

I was also going over the NBC nightly news yesterday. . .the story about the gay councilman who made a statement and came out to the other members of the city council and other people who were there. It was quite emotional. . and his story was an appeal to all the young gays all over. . to hold on, to wait to build and keep the memories of happy times. . .to give themselves time to see things "get better". . . ( the entire story is on the NBC NEWS website.)

SO. . .one of the reasons why more people do not post on my blog is because they are not OUT and are afraid to be outed, somehow, by posting here on this obviously gay blog. Just...what IF. . . we all know the WHAT IFs in our lives. . .and of course we always think the worse possible scenario. . I have and I sometimes still do. .

So maybe fear keeps them quiet. I can respect and support that, support YOU totally.

YOU are welcome here. . a thousand welcomes! I am glad you keep coming back. . .I hope you find some help, encouragement, some space to laugh with and at us, safely.

MY OFFER: should you ever want to make a comment to the blog readers, to me, or anyone in particular, and don't feel ready to post it under your name and email addy. . . here's what you can do.
Mail it to me via my addy jstn_oshea@yahoo.com and I will post it to the blog without your name, email or any identifying marks, remarks.

Geeee, showers are a wonder institution! hahahahaaaa

justin
October 17, 2010 8:57 AM
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7 comments:

Jim said...

That's a great idea Justin. Hope more respond. It's about time you hear from younger people and see what they are thinking.....instead of from us old farts!!!lol
Jim

Denis said...

Hi Justin,

Regarding comments, I honor and am impressed by your offer to publish comments and keep the writer unknown.

I appreciate your offer of support for men who feel they must stay closeted.

I am not there right now, but I was for over 35 years. I am a 57 year old gay man, still married to my wife, but out to her.

Until I was 54 my feelings were that being out or outed would be the end of my world. I would have been terrified to post and terrified to be seen looking at a gay blog.

I realize now that this was a projection of my own homophobia, my own self hatred and fear to be who I am. I started my road out by reading blogs. Your blog remains a connection to the larger tribe of gay men and in particular to the thoughts of younger gay men. It is a different and more supportive world, because of men like you Justin.

I wonder how many older gay married men read your blog. I would like to make my own offer of support. If there is anyone out there who has taken the path I walked down and would like to further discuss being an older gay or bi married man, they can contact me. I would be happy to exchange emails and I have many other on line sources of support I can direct you to.

Thank You Justin
for being part of a supportive on line community

Denis
cardog108@gmail.com

Gary Kelly said...

So if I make comments on a straight blog will I risk losing all my gay friends?

Now there's an interesting thought.

There are straight guys who have been following my blog and stories for over 10 years... some married with kids. In fact, one of the straight kids writes to me. And so does his mother.

Where did I go wrong? :)

I wouldn't be at all surprised if there are many straight followers of JustinO's blog. And why not?

I think it's time we stopped worrying about all this silly labeling business.

By the way, I have a couple of friends who are Australian Aborigines. I've known then for several years now and no one has accused me of being black. Funny about that.

Anonymous said...

Justin I wonder if one of the reasons people don't post comments is because they doubt their writing abilities. I know that sounds kind of lame, but I have found that not every gay male has a great education with a great job.

I also wonder if the general population is gradually losing the ability to write. People text so much with all the shortcuts that they have trouble writing real English. I know thae art of conversation and gentle disagreement is in decline. I listen to some guys and girls here at college and I wonder if my family is among the last who actually converse. In complete sentences. With proper grammar.

Gary Kelly said...

Banister raises an interesting point. I see heaps of kids as well as not-so-kids texting messages on their phones.

I see similar shortcut responses on Youtube and other social networks.

Properly constructed sentences are a thing of the past so it seems.

JustinO'Shea said...

Such a pity. . .if true. . . .

JustinO'Shea said...

HI BANISTER. . . .My fmaily is like yours. . . ;-). . .we still have conversations. . . lots of them!. .especially around the table. . .when we are all at home it is even better. . .LOL

We still talk in sentences, more or less grammatically correct too. . like yours.

I bet there are others like us too.!

Oh..and WELCOME! Glad you are here.
justin