The Death of Antinous

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Antinous, a young man from Bithynia, was a favorite of Roman emperor Hadrian. Not much is known about his life except that he possessed a rare beauty. Antinous was not yet 20 years old when he drowned in the Nile in 130 CE under suspicious circumstances.

Hadrian grieved the young man and made a cult in his honor. While the cult was suppressed in the 4th century, the legend of Antinous continued to live as a symbol of same-sex love.

It is reported that Hadrian was devastated by the loss. Shortly after Antinous’ death, the emperor deified the young man and made a cult in his honor. This was the beginning of Antinous’ legacy and the birth of his legend. Read more…

A mysterious death on the Nile, an unconventional love affair, a Roman-Greek hero turned God – the story of Hadrian and Antinous is full of intrigue. The Rest is History delves into the world of Roman romance, where gender binaries and modern moral arguments do not feature, and look into the possible theories of how Antinous’ body ended up in the Nile…

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Forbidden WWII gay love story gets a feature film

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For years, a WWII soldier named Gilbert exchanged passionate love letters with his mysterious recipient “G.” More than half a century later, the world learned that G stood for Gordon, another man. Now these wartime gay lovers are finally getting a film to commemorate their secret love on the battlefield.

According to BBC News, British soldiers Gilbert Bradley and Gordon Bowsher sent one another hundreds of letters. Gilbert was stationed at Park Hall Camp in Oswestry as an anti-aircraft gunner, whereas Gordon was stationed all over the country as an infantryman. The two met in 1938 at a house party in Devon and soon fell in love.

A letter dated two years after their meeting read, “My own darling boy, There is nothing more than I desire in life but to have you with me constantly…I can see or I imagine I can see, what your mother and father’s reaction would be… the rest of the world have no conception of what our love is – they do not know that it is love…”

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Conversion “therapy” on the rise again in the US

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Last week, news emerged that the US Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case challenging the state of Colorado’s ban on LGBTQ+ conversion therapy, a practise that is known to dramatically increase the risk of suicide in queer youth. SCOTUSblog reported on Monday (10 March) that the court will hear a challenge to the Colorado law prohibiting mental health counselors from practicing the widely criticised form of therapy.

This week, less than an hour before a midnight deadline, the Republican-dominated Kentucky legislature approved a bill protecting the use of conversion therapy on minors in the state. The bill targeted an executive order signed last year by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear. Republicans enjoy a veto-proof supermajority in both houses of the Kentucky legislature and can easily override Beshear’s expected veto of the bill.

Yes LGBTQ+ Conversion Therapy is still a thing // Queer History 101 [CC]

These news confused many people who didn’t understand what the term “conversion therapy” meant or why the practice is so harmful to LGBTQ+ people. Here’s what you need to know about the dark history of the term

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Why did Alan Turing fatefully tell police he was gay?

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For decades, it has puzzled historians. Why, in the course of reporting a burglary to the police in 1952, did the maths genius Alan Turing volunteer that he was in an illegal homosexual relationship?

The admission enabled the police to prosecute the Bletchley Park codebreaker for “gross indecency”, ending Turing’s groundbreaking work for GCHQ on early computers and artificial intelligence and compelling him to undergo a chemical castration that rendered him impotent. Two years later, he killed himself.

Now, research by a University of Cambridge academic has shed light on the reasons why Turing, a former undergraduate and lecturer at King’s College, Cambridge, did not hide his homosexuality from the police. “There was a whole community in King’s quite different from stories one knows about from gay history, usually involving casual pickups and a lot of despair, hiding and misery,” said Simon Goldhill, professor of classics at the college.

His research has uncovered a “rather happy” community in the formerly all-male college at “the centre of the British establishment” while homosexuality was still illegal. “It was a very camp environment,” said Goldhill, For example, in the 1930s, when Turing was at King’s, “the provost [college principal] and many of the senior fellows [tutors] were openly and outwardly gay. They had sex with men and talked constantly about having sex with men.”

Read on..

News Roundup *101

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Just days after marriage equality became the law in Thailand, the country’s national health ministry added hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to the free health services available to Thai citizens.

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Shirtless? Bulgeless? Male gymnasts debate how revealing their uniforms should be.

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Frederick Richard, a gymnast with Team USA and the University of Michigan, created a stir when he wore a new uniform at a recent meet knowing it would violate rules on attire and earn him a deduction. His actions once again raised the issue of the proper attire for male gymnasts.

“I’m making this change for my 10-year-old self who felt awkward in tights and embarrassed to tell people I’m pursuing a ‘girls’ sport,” Richard posted to Instagram on Feb. 12. “And for every kid who still feels that way today. I’ve made it my goal to change this sport, because no young boy should feel these insecurities in a sport as amazing as this one. The world and culture has changed… Now it’s time for the sport and the uniform to change as well. … The new era of men’s gymnastics uniforms is coming.”

At the USA Gymnastic Winter Cup, Frederick ditched the standard unitard and pommel horse tights in place of a looser-fitting tank top and basketball-style shorts, done up in blue and maize Michigan colors. He complained that the unitard was like wearing a T-shirt two sizes too small and that it rode up uncomfortably to the crotch. He received an automatic deduction for a uniform violation, which he had anticipated. He finished second in the meet, but the deduction had no bearing on the final result.

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First ever images of humpbacks having sex show two males

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Each year humpback whales travel thousands of miles from their polar feeding grounds to the tropical waters where they mate, give birth and nurse their calves. But despite the breeding season attracting tourists and scientists from around the world, sexual behavior among humpback whales had never been documented—until now.

“I wish I knew how to quit you.” – Humpback Mountain

And the world’s first photographs of humpback whales copulating are even more groundbreaking because both individuals were male. The surprising images, published this week in a paper in Marine Mammal Science, were recorded by chance.

In January 2022 Lyle Krannichfeld and Brandi Romano—two photographers based on the Hawaiian island of Maui—saw something strange. Two whales slowly swam toward their boat. Whale B kept approaching Whale A from behind, holding on with his pectoral fins and copulating with Whale A; each penetration lasted for less than two minutes.

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Most banned books in the US feature minorities

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The majority of banned books in US public schools last year dealt with people of color, LGBTQ+ people and other demographics, according to a new study from PEN America.

The report also counteracts claims by conservative lawmakers that books being removed from classrooms are sexually explicit and that book bans are altogether a “hoax”, an assertion made by Donald Trump. There were more than 10,000 instances of books being banned in the 2023-24 school year, PEN America reported, a sharp increase from the previous year, as Republican-led states implemented new censorship laws.

Out of 4,218 book titles that were banned, 1,534 – or 36% – featured people of color, the most censored identity group in book bans. Some removed titles included August Wilson’s Pulitzer-prize winning play Fences and Innosanto Nagara’s A is for Activist, a picture book for children about social issues.

Titles featuring LGBTQ+ characters also made up a sizable number of book bans: 1,066 books, or 25% of all banned titles, included LGBTQ+ people. Transgender or genderqueer characters were specifically targeted in such book bans, as 28% of removed books featuring LGBTQ+ characters included that demographic.

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Give yourself a life-changing orgasm with prostate milking

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For people who have them, penises are most often considered the stars of the show when it comes to sexual pleasure. More often overlooked is a small organ that can be accessed through the rectum to set off full-body, euphoric multiple orgasms. I’m talking about the prostate.

Not much academic or clinical research has been done on the pleasure potential of the prostate, let alone how to give yourself a prostate orgasm if you’ve never done it before. That’s OK—we’re here to help you take your prostate quite literally into your own hands! Let’s break down how to blow your own mind from behind with the help of sex educators, adult performers, therapists, and other prostate pleasure pros.

What is the prostate, exactly?

The prostate is a ping-pong ball–sized gland that lives below the bladder, close to the inner root or bulb of the penis. In its other functional roles, the prostate helps maintain erections and transports sperm during ejaculation, among other important reproductive tasks.

“While scientific types might like to debate and get super bogged down with glands and homologues and the like, a rough analogy would be that a prostate is similar to a G-spot and pretty much located in a very similar manner,” said Rain DeGrey, a sex educator and adult performer who’s been teaching classes on the ins and outs of P-spot orgasms for 13 years.

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(Homo)Sexuality on trial in colonial America

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In 1774, as Britain’s colonies in America teetered on the brink of revolution, one regiment was torn apart by the trials of a British army chaplain – Robert Newburgh – who was accused of having sex with another man. In this episode, John Gilbert McCurdy examines evolving attitudes to sexuality and liberty in the colonies on the eve of revolutionary war, and explores how Newburgh’s trials became a flashpoint for wider fears of moral and political disorder.