The visit of the Iranian mongrel president to New York is not over yet. Using the podium at Columbia university he declared to the world that there are no gays in Iran. Having met some flamboyant ex-Persians in the raunchier bars of this fair city I went looking for some counter-evidence. Well CBC Canada has done it already and here is the brave piece they put together. Eye opener indeed. Watch and learn Mr President because this is what happens to gay men and women in your country. Like these two young men in the photo (no, it's not a BDSM flick, it's the real horror) who were whipped 100 lashes when caught snuggling at home. See below the YouTube version or click here for better quality video on CBC.CA site. There are gays in Iran and some of them are real heroes. Would I have the guts to stand up in public and face such danger for the potential to be happy? Would you?
Craiglist is the best resource that a newly arrived New Yorker needs. First to find a place to put your weary head at night, then to find stuff to make the bare carpets more hospitable. Scanning the hundreds of daily adds provide a bizarre kind of entertainment and allows to find real bargains on almost everything. Apartments, desks, TVs or Iguanas. Its all there. I found my apartment this way, I also found all the furniture and appliances for ridiculous prices. How about doing it all at under 1000$? Cool. But I also came across some shameless scams that can leave the unsuspected naive with no money and a returned email. The first scam was actually very amusing. A 1 Br apartment in Chelsea, the nicest and gayest part of town, for 1500 $. Nice. I was striking gold here! The story got interesting when the person who responded to my add claimed to be a women living currently in Greece hence not able to show me the place, only photos. Theses were great and I was a newbie . "She...
Image from Yossi and Jagger , a must-view film for any DADT fan Almos three years in America, land of the free, and I am still amazed by the fear and homophobia rampant in great parts of this great country. Today, while attending an important meeting in my washroom, I read yet another story of a US Army soldier who was brave enough to tour Iraq and Afghanistan three times (!!) but alas his attraction to bulging biceps and hairy male chests (ok, some women have that too) got him kicked out, disgraced, from the armed forces. The story brought back vivid closeted and un-closeted memories from my own 5 year tour at the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) as an officer in a combat unit. No, I wasn't in the army's choir or orchestra, neither was I stationed as some General's secretary in a carpeted office, I did the real thing, dirty nails and all. As a young officer I joined an armored corps battalion and every few months rotated with my unit to another frontier: Gaza, Lebanon, the Wes...
Two years since my last post. Lazy bastard. No longer in the Empire state but a proud resident of the ever-sunny-yet-quirky Florida. After years in the big apple with occasional expeditions to the sunshine state our little family (two guys and a dog) packed our lives once more and migrated south full time for a fresh start. We survived a painful separation (long story - deserves its own post) and escaped the concrete towers to a new lush land full of trees, water, giant reptiles and Latinos. Having no state tax helped as well. Almost two years later it looks like the smartest choice I made so far in America.
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