going barefoot on National Coming Out Day

[ftlaudft]

Are you going barefoot today? Did you know it's National Coming Out Day? Well, you'd better check the news at advocate.com because you'll find out they hate us all over the place and there's so much shit out there you might be better off keeping your shoes on.

Paladino! Serbian skinheads and ultranationalists! Latin King Goonies! What do they have in common? They hate us!

Paladino, candidate for governor of New York, thinks our lifestyle is disgusting, our parades are disgusting, and homosexuality is not an acceptable way of life. You want him for governor?

The ANTI-gay protesters in Belgrade, Serbia, have turned the capital city into a war zone. The gays are trying to have a peaceful parade, but the anti-gay protesters have clashed with the police and hundreds have been injured. Serbia is the home of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the country where only a few years ago countless unarmed men and boys were rounded up and butchered - because they were Muslims. Ask any Serb how they could massacre children and he will answer, "'You can't understand what Kosovo means to a Serb."' No, I guess I can't. And it's not just Muslims. They don't like gays either.

I used to think you had to go to Iran to be tortured for being gay, but I find out in the news that all you have to do is be gay in the Bronx and you may get burned with cigarettes, get slashed with beer cans, and have a toiled plunger shoved up your ass. The gang of Latin King Goonies who committed these crimes against two 17 year olds and one 30 year old represent a hatred of gays right here in the United States.

Fellow Footbuddies, it just makes me sick! It's National Coming Out Day and I feel I may want to go back in the closet! Gay teenagers have been committing suicide from coast to coast. Please don't tell me to have a nice day. And forget about going barefoot today. If I do step outside, I'm wearing hipboots!

[ropedfeet]

I agree FtLaud, all the things you mention here ARE pretty disgusting and disheartening to say the VERY least.

Gay "freedom" has come a long way, but we should Never forget that laws do Not change what is in the hearts and minds of many people out there. And it does not take much for a "mob" mentality to take over groups of people with diminished brain capacity.


There are enemies out there for sure. Many of them. Whole countries of them it seems at times.

and yes, we should never forget how many of these "people" use their religions to justify their evil and inhuman acts, both in this country and abroad.

It can all be very depressing...and these are only the things we have heard about.

[ftlaudft]

Thanks for your comment, Ropie. Some of the news lately has been very discouraging. At the same time here at FootBuddies we do have each other. Most of us here have worked very hard in our lives to overcome all sorts of obstacles, including laws and legal rights and the attitudes of society. Just look at all the minds you've been able to reach by posting your picture, Ropie, with your special interest. Would anyone have done that 50 years ago? But you've posted a number of pics in the past few years and many have posted back how much it meant. We are doing something right. We will survive. And we'll do more than survive. We shall overcome!

[ropedfeet]

Thanks for the kind words FtLaud. I'm always happy if anyone has enjoyed any of the pics I have posted here, or maybe even encouraged anyone to post any of themselves even.


It's true that being gay in this world has become easier in Many ways than what other's had to deal with in the past. And some people need to keep in mind that it was not too long ago that things were very different in many places. Lots of people took lots of crap for having the guts to live their lives as they wanted to. We reap the benefits of many of their acts of courage to be themselves.


There is nothing wrong with Being gay, what IS wrong is how some people try, and in some cases unfortunately succeed in making others Feel about being gay.

It is a Very sad thing that so many gay people here and around the world have to still live in fear for who they are. It is very angering to think that they have to go through life like that even in these times. There is hope though that as time goes on, and as older ways of thinking gradually change that in the future there will be less and less of the oppression that so many people live with today.

That time cannot come fast enough though. That type of world is still a LONG way off.

People who hate us are out there in huge numbers still.