We kiss in a shadow,
We hide from the moon,
Our meetings are few,
And over too soon.
We speak in a whisper,
Afraid to be heard;
When people are near,
We speak not a word.
Alone in our secret,
Together we sigh,
For one smiling day to be free
To kiss in the sunlight
And say to the sky:
"Behold and believe what you see!
Behold how my lover loves me!"
1951, Rodgers and Hammerstein, The King and I.
True gentlemen never kiss and tell - but when two gentlemen kiss, is it okay to show? If it's Adam Lambert and a fellow bandmate smooching onstage at the AMAs, that's off-limits too, says CBS' "Early Show."
The program is defending its decision to blur out Lambert's onstage lip-lock with his keyboardist when replaying a clip of the now-infamous American Music Awards performance, EW.com reports. Seconds after airing the edited clip, "The Early Show" played footage of Madonna and Britney Spears snogging - unedited.
"We gave this some real thought. The Madonna image is very familiar and has appeared countless times including many times on morning television. The Adam Lambert image is a subject of great current controversy, has not been nearly as widely disseminated, and for all we know, may still lead to legal consequences," a spokesman for "The Early Show" told EW.com in a statement. A spokesman for the national gay-rights organization the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation was quick to blast the censored smooch. "'The Early Show's' decision this morning to blur Adam Lambert's kiss from the American Music Awards reinforces an unfortunate double standard that is applied to openly gay performers," the organization's president, Jarrett Barrios, said in a statement. The "American Idol" finalist appeared on CBS' 'The Early Show' Wednesday after ABC exacted revenge for his unscripted, sex-charged shenanigans by yanking him off "Good Morning America."
"We gave this some real thought"... Want to bet a great number of straight males across the USA, including many a tv executive, were thinking about Madonna and Britney while they were home banging their wives and mistresses with extra vigor after that televised lip lock? After the Adam Lambert "controversy", not so much. They probably thought about it such that their willies rapidly faded from view and weren't seen again for days.
In 2009, in the US, three couples have been arrested by police after simply kissing in public. In December, two women in San Antonio, Texas, were arrested for "making out." Then, in El Paso, Texas, on June 29, at a Chico’s Tacos restaurant two men were handcuffed and subsequently threatened with arrest by police after one kissed the other on the cheek. And most recently, in a well-publicized case, two men were detained by security guards of the Mormon Church, then arrested by police on July 10, yes, that’s right, for kissing.
Not only can PDA between gay and lesbian couples get you harassed and arrested in this country, PDA between couples of the same sex can even get you killed.
Two brothers from Ecuador had attended a church party and had stopped at a bar afterward. They may have been a bit tipsy as they walked home in the dead of night, arm-in-arm, leaning close to each other, a common tableau of men in Latino cultures, but one easily misinterpreted by the biased mind. Suddenly a car drew up. It was 3:30 a.m. Sunday, and the intersection of Bushwick Avenue and Kossuth Place in Bushwick, Brooklyn, a half-block from the brothers’ apartment, was nearly deserted — but not quite. Witnesses heard some of what happened next. Three men came out of the car shouting at the brothers, Jose and Romel Sucuzhanay — something ugly, anti-gay and anti-Latino. Vulgarisms against Hispanics and gay men were heard by witnesses, the police said.
One man approached Jose Sucuzhanay, 31, the owner of a real estate agency who has been in New York a decade, and broke a beer bottle over the back of his head. He went down hard. Romel Sucuzhanay, 38, who is visiting from Ecuador on a two-month visa, bounded over a parked car and ran as the man with the broken bottle came at him. A distance away, he looked back and saw a second assailant beating his prone brother with an aluminum baseball bat, striking him repeatedly on the head and body. The man with the broken bottle turned back and joined the beating and kicking. "They used a baseball bat," said Diego Sucuzhanay, another brother. "I guess the goal was to kill him."
In december, 2008, a public display of affection between men perceived to be gay, and Latino can get you murdered, even in places like NYC.
Back in 1993, MTV and Pedro Zamora broke all sorts barriers with their broadcast of Pedro and Sean's commitment ceremony. If you take notice of the crowd shots, a number of their friends attending the ceremony look somewhat uncomfortable when the happy couple publicly displayed affection, even in their own apartment, at their own ceremony. However the folks that shared the apartment with Pedro, having seen these displays on a regular basis, look perfectly comfortable with the affection displayed.
RIP Pedro. You remain a hero of mine. Thanks for your lifetime of work in advancing our cause. You were gone much to soon.
Since then, we've taken quite a few steps forward and a few steps back...
A cute, sort of innocent commercial, but still banned to "protect children"-
Daytime soaps have been pushing the envelope on our behalf as well-
And through it all, MTV has been there, on our side teaching tolerance-
To be perfectly be honest, I’ve not been one to engage often in public displays of affection. However – I say if you want to give your better half a kiss, or hold their hand while walking down the street, go for it. Lord knows, this world could use a lot more love, and a lot more people seeing people display acts of love, affection, and kindness. And I’ll be damned if anyone – citizen, neighbor, or the police – thinks they can tell me I can’t hold my boyfriend’s hand while walking down the street, or kiss him in public...
Two bloggers - David Badash and David Mailloux - believe that any person anywhere should be able to kiss whomever they want, whenever they want. They believe that there's not enough love and affection in the world, because most people are afraid to show it. We should never be afraid of brief, unimposing displays of affection. There is nothing wrong with a hug, a kiss on the mouth, a kiss on the cheek. They coordinated a nationwide event on August 15, 2009 called "The Great Nationwide Kiss-In". Another Facebook event is being coordinated for this Valentine's Day at Rockefeller Center/The Today Show.
Sean was at the San Francisco Kiss-In:
Similar events occurred across the nation and in Montreal and Paris:
mmm, did I mention a French accent makes my knees go weak?
So, do you want to make an important contribution to the GLBT civil rights movement and make yourself feel a bit better in one fell swoop, even if it means stepping a bit beyond your comfort zone? Next time you are walking down the street with a close friend or relative, walk arm in arm. Show them some affection, whether they are same sex or not. It is fairly routine in many overseas countries, but here in the US with all our sexual hangups? not so much...
I think the more positive images Americans see of displays of affection between members of the same sex, whether romantic affection or familial affection, or just affection period, the less likely folks like Jose and genuine gay and lesbian folks will be assaulted and murdered when they display their affection in public.
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