this unlocked memories of sitting in a desk chair after pride, being unsure if i had really marched for anything at all. thank you for your candor - you're one hell of a writer.
Thanks, JP, for helping this almost ancient queen keep up on contemporary argot, and cultural factoids. I had to google
• Niccole Kiddman’s wigs, and
• Kayfabe,
Thank you for those.
Despite being born while Elvis was still a thing, this matches my own experience with pride. Guess I had a delayed gay adolescence, coming out at 39. Whatever, it doesn't matter. This is mighty fine writing JP. And editing too.
"...more or less a fantasy concocted by the male heterosexual mind, which is capable of being many leagues gayer than any of those of my present-day colleagues on the Grindr grid." This is such a profound statement that you made almost off-handedly as you often do. I thought, "yeah". John Paul, you see and say things that cause the rest of us to do a double, and in wonder, say "yeah, that's right..."
"The other reason Pride is hard to write about is that a lot of gay people tend to struggle to write or make art about gay people....I speculate there’s some instinct of self-preservation at play, that the desire to “do right” by “the community” lends a stilted, ambassador-like officialism to such projects that reads as artificial."
As someone searching all his life for some concept of gay male identity that has to do with men loving men rather than just transgressing gender norms and being fabulous, this paragraph resonated with me; especially with the death of Edmund White. What did you think of White's work?
makes me want to write my own 10 year retrospective. thanks JP. I always feel like your writing gives me permission to think, feel, and write what I want to write too!
Obviously another incredible essay but very importantly, I cannot and will not stop laughing at the phrase "Me, gently evil." Honestly, might be my memoir title.
I want to crawl inside this piece of writing and take shelter too
I loved the part about the alleycat being fed ham. This is an amazing essay. Difference is what makes life make sense!
this unlocked memories of sitting in a desk chair after pride, being unsure if i had really marched for anything at all. thank you for your candor - you're one hell of a writer.
Thanks, JP, for helping this almost ancient queen keep up on contemporary argot, and cultural factoids. I had to google
• Niccole Kiddman’s wigs, and
• Kayfabe,
Thank you for those.
Despite being born while Elvis was still a thing, this matches my own experience with pride. Guess I had a delayed gay adolescence, coming out at 39. Whatever, it doesn't matter. This is mighty fine writing JP. And editing too.
"...more or less a fantasy concocted by the male heterosexual mind, which is capable of being many leagues gayer than any of those of my present-day colleagues on the Grindr grid." This is such a profound statement that you made almost off-handedly as you often do. I thought, "yeah". John Paul, you see and say things that cause the rest of us to do a double, and in wonder, say "yeah, that's right..."
so often your writing unlocks a room i didn't know existed inside me and invites me in to sit quietly for a while
Facts. Kinda magik.
"The other reason Pride is hard to write about is that a lot of gay people tend to struggle to write or make art about gay people....I speculate there’s some instinct of self-preservation at play, that the desire to “do right” by “the community” lends a stilted, ambassador-like officialism to such projects that reads as artificial."
As someone searching all his life for some concept of gay male identity that has to do with men loving men rather than just transgressing gender norms and being fabulous, this paragraph resonated with me; especially with the death of Edmund White. What did you think of White's work?
makes me want to write my own 10 year retrospective. thanks JP. I always feel like your writing gives me permission to think, feel, and write what I want to write too!
Very moving piece. Thank you ❤️
This is an excellent essay on personal, political, and cultural
history to be digested, thought upon, dissected, and most of all shared.
The “ham for alley cats” is a striking and noteworthy metaphor.
WELL spoken, and VERY Spot ON.
NEVER ask for permission.
Obviously another incredible essay but very importantly, I cannot and will not stop laughing at the phrase "Me, gently evil." Honestly, might be my memoir title.
Someone should make an LGBTQ+ natural disaster movie set at a Pride parade.