Adolcence n be a ighteng perd for young gay men, who are sudnly faced wh new sexual feelgs that n often nflict wh social prsur placed on them by fay, iends, and the media. Mike Curato explor this tumultuo perd his new Godw Books graphic novel, Flamer, a semi-tobgraphil…
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A GAY TEEN DISVERS HIMSELF AT SUMMER MP THIS FLAMER FIRST LOOK
Tucked the Missouri Ozarks is a place where gay men are unabashedly celebratory: Cact Canyon Campground, a 700-acre, clothg optnal, all-male retreat. * gay camping story *
”Across the pool, a bald man wh a large stomach stg naked a chair turned to a iend and murmured out the si of his mouth, “You thk that’s jt a tad gay? ”The rollg woods of the Ozarks — where a billboard along a major highway proclaims that marriage is the unn of one man and one woman, where a “J Sav” sign and other Christian symbols rate ont lawns — seem an unlikely place for gay people to feel fortable beg out and tucked the backuntry here is a place where gay men are unabashedly celebratory and self-pretg about their liv: Cact Canyon Campground, a 700-acre, clothg optnal, all-male s 15th season, the mpground has bee so popular that the owners are the procs of triplg s RV pacy, addg more spac for tents and stallg a send surprisg, perhaps, is the way lol rints generally react to the mp nowadays: wh a shg, or maybe an awkward gr. “Live and let live, ” said Jim Luellen, 68, who owns a nvenience store nearby sister, Kathy Haynie, 72, said: “It’s not right for men or women beg homosexual or whatever you ll .
Still, the story of Cact Canyon offers one example of the evolvg gay experience this vatng the regn, a gay uple, Chaz Franzke and Jim Thiman, beme so enamored of the scenery that they left their jobs Wisns, bought property and opened the mpground 1999. They started a Yahoo Group, Out the Ozarks, that anized var gathergs for gay people, like breakfasts at a lol der. “I feel a lot more fortable around gay people than I do around straight people, ” said Craig Nelson, 62, stg bi his 32-foot mper on a plot rated wh elephant ears, weigelas and other plants.