Two Men Kissg: A Photo Celebratn of Gay Pri

In the aftermath of the sensels killgs Orlando, Florida, a hashtag began trendg on social media: #TwoMenKissg. It was a reference to an terview where the shooter's father suggted his son's motivatn was homophobia, rellg an cint where his son had bee enraged by the sight of two men kissg. In rponse, everyday men across the untry took to their social media channels to post pictur and selfi kissg iends, lovers, strangers. They were all followg the footsteps of generatns of gay photographers, everyone om Robert Mapplethorpe to Alasdair McLellan to more obscure nam like Alv Baltrop, who sisted through the years rerdg same-sex affectn - to affirm their existence a world that nied their sexualy, to rerd their own history, or simply to exalt, to e a phrase om morn parlance, the ia that "love is love." Here, to ci wh gay pri month, is a selectn of imag om a variety of sourc - the new Mapplethorpe retrospective at Los Angel County Mm of Art, a new exhib on 1970's queer culture at the Llie-Lohman Mm of Gay and Lbian Art, Tom Bianchi's celebrated monograph on the Fire Island P - that together celebrate a simple but powerful image: #TwoMenKissg.