I should exploit this flood of self expression till I tire myself and retire to bed.

Lately, I've been watching a lot of movies about the Elizabethan era, and I've been wondering how life was like for homosexuals during that time. For instance, in the movie Elizabeth, her future advisor is first see with his "assistant" who's about to slit his throat. Of course, nothing is ever stated (is it ever?) but the scenario is tacit enough to relay the ideas. Christopher Marlowe, Shakespeare's contemporary who's career was cut short due to a tavern brawl, wrote that those who had no love "for boys and tobacco" were fools. That being one of the more obvious ones... then there're the actors themselves who, especially the ones portraying the heroines, enjoyed the feel of the other actors' lips against their's, yet cannot acknowledge it.

I had a dream once, where I was a boy around my age who awoke in the bed of Chris Marlowe, caressing his naked back as he philosophised. I would just agree with everything he talked about, since such things didn't interest me... then we would make wild, passionate love under the linen sheets while he spoke poetry to me.. Hey, one of my more recent fantasies which aren't completely sacchrine with romance-novel-esque love.

I found that book about homoerotic photography in Borders again. Now, with a more private and secluded setting compared to that of B Dalton, I read more from the book, and reached a chapter talking about how, during World Ward II, soldiers were allowed to express a deep sense of love (be it brotherly or loverly) with their fellow trench-mates. (yeah, I know trench warfare was mainly used in "the war to end all wars") It was, in effect, a nation-wide coming-out event, but in the purely male sense of way. The 80's however, the only good thing to come out of that time, was that a lot of homosexual public personalities were able to act more like themselves and remain unnoticed by the public at large. For instance, Melissa Ethridge, the Indigo Girls, and several other artists I've neglected to remember, shaved their head and weren't suspected of much until they themselves came out to the public. As for the male side of the spectrum, the obvious Boy George and George Michael... although Culture Club was rather transparent, and I really fail to see how people could have missed on George Michael. David Bowie, although not gay himself (and I doubt completely straight), defied the laws of gender appearance and went for the whole androgynous alien look... which in turn factored into The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Then there's Liberace... well, I don't have the strength to argue his case. Who knows, now with the advent of the boy bands, there could be a few more of those trapped in the closet souls out there... but now it's not as scandalous to come out as it would have been a few decades earlier.

Wah... I feel like a bagel!