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.
Thiman said their primary ncern was providg their mpers wh an enjoyable experience, they acknowledged that the mpground’s prence might play some role easg ncerns that lols had about gay men and lbians.