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Contents:

• MEETG YOUR FIRST GAY FRIEND
• WE WERE GAY UNTIL WE MET EACH OTHER: OUR UNUAL HETEROSEXUAL LOVE STORY
• 'PASSAG' DIRECTOR NOUNC 'DANGERO' NC-17 RATG ON A FILM PICTG A GAY LOVE STORY
• GAY ST. LOUIS

MEETG YOUR FIRST GAY FRIEND

It's no secret that growg up gay n be a lonely experience. At tim, many gay men feel as though they're the only on experiencg certa thoughts and feelgs, on that society still often ems abnormal. So when a gay man first bonds wh someone else who intifi as gay or queer, 's evably a total lightng bolt moment.

I'm no longer close wh my first gay iend, Jam, bee we're very different people now. But I still remember clumsily g out to him after a Le Tigre ncert and him sayg, "I thk I'm gay, too.

" He was hot—I thk everyone thought so—but I didn't thk he was gay. Then we started chattg and he said "I'm gay" the most offhand way.

WE WERE GAY UNTIL WE MET EACH OTHER: OUR UNUAL HETEROSEXUAL LOVE STORY

He didn't still a sense of ternalized homophobia me, which was important bee I was a mpy gay guy who'd always been teased for beg mpy. " He gave me the permissn to be myself when I didn't even know who that, on DeanI grew up a small nservative town and didn't know anyone gay at school, so I met my first gay iends through social media.

If you've been lookg for a way to meet other OlrGay members near you, you n now schle a meetup to get everyone together. And the formerly gay-only sweethearts — whose avant-gar amour has gone viral, fetchg upwards of 30.

'PASSAG' DIRECTOR NOUNC 'DANGERO' NC-17 RATG ON A FILM PICTG A GAY LOVE STORY

“Even though I intified as gay before I met Maren, I wasn’t seekg a romantic relatnship wh men, ” explaed Jam, an event planner om Durham, North Carola. Jam said that while he intified as gay, he wasn’t seekg a romantic partnership wh a man before meetg Maren bee “didn’t feel right.

LZ GranrsonThe myth of the gay agenda17 mut 34 sendsIn a funny talk wh an urgent msage, LZ Granrson pots out the absurdy the ia that there's a "gay liftyle, " much ls a "gay agenda.

GAY ST. LOUIS

Wh fect joy, Tiq and Kim qutn our misnceptns about who they might be and offer a visn of an clive, challengg love that grows day by Tillett WrightFifty shas of gay18 mut 1 sendiO Tillett Wright has photographed 2, 000 people who nsir themselv somewhere on the LGBTQ spectm -- and asked many of them: Can you assign a percentage to how gay or straight you are?

Most people, turns out, nsir themselv to exist the gray areas of sexualy, not 100% gay or straight. Yoba RichenWhat the gay rights movement learned om the civil rights movement17 mut 28 sendsAs a member of both the Ain Amerin and LGBT muni, filmmaker Yoba Richen is fascated wh the overlaps and tensns between the gay rights and the civil rights movements. Jok Church tells a short, movg story of the teacher who sheltered him as a young gay teen and helped him grow -- and how, many years later, he and his partner had the privilege of returng the favor.

And dawned upon me: olr gay men may hold some of the answers. The are people whose sex liv pre-date apps like Grdr or Scff, and they may have even evad the wispread lennial mentaly of quickly fdg somethg fective wh a new lover, only to start bralsly swipg me, olr gay men me to symbolize the one thg more spirg than heartbreak: rebirth. I need to know their back to perasty Ancient Greece, there has existed a scere social bond between olr gay men and male youth – perhaps the form of today’s “bears” and “twks” – where timacy was mgled wh the dispensg of emotnal tellect.