People you think are in the closet

[unicorn]

I was at a smallish birthday party last week-end and introduced to a sister and brother-in-law of the friend whose birthday was being celebrated. On the way back home, I told my husband that I hoped the sister knew her husband was gay. My husband said he also sensed that immediately, and he told me that he found out they're both "bisexual" and that each has sex with those of their own gender outside the marriage (they don't have children, BTW). Among celebrities, one man who sets my gaydar off is Benson Boone. While he's ostensibly left the Mormon Church, the fact that he still avoids coffee and alcohol attests to his upbringing having scarred him. I've called his latest hit "the most arrogant song ever written" (I confess that I like the catchy tune, though). I wonder if he'll ever come out. 

 

[unicorn]

[unicorn]

 

 

[PeterRS]

Never heard of him. Is he famous or something? It frankly doesn't matter to me one jot if someone is in the closet but pretending to be straight. Why should it concern others? There may have been a certain fascination about a movie star or two possibly being gay more than four decades ago. We're surely beyond that now. It should be no-one else's business.

[unicorn]

4 hours ago, PeterRS said:

Never heard of him. Is he famous or something? It frankly doesn't matter to me one jot if someone is in the closet but pretending to be straight. Why should it concern others? There may have been a certain fascination about a movie star or two possibly being gay more than four decades ago. We're surely beyond that now. It should be no-one else's business.

Well, he's won some awards, though only nominated for a Grammy (Best New Artist 2025--didn't win). Obviously, it's their personal decision, although it does annoy me that these artists seem to enjoy perpetuating the myth that one can't be successful if one's openly gay. It took Shawn Mendes to even marginally come out as "figuring out his sexual orientation," although I can assure you that he's gay. Benson Boone's biggest hit in the US hit #2 in the Billboard charts:

 

(I confess I prefer the tune of Mystical, Magical better, although I find the lyrics unbelievably arrogant.)

[Riobard]

4 hours ago, PeterRS said:

Never heard of him. Is he famous or something? It frankly doesn't matter to me one jot if someone is in the closet but pretending to be straight. Why should it concern others? There may have been a certain fascination about a movie star or two possibly being gay more than four decades ago. We're surely beyond that now. It should be no-one else's business.

I would add that the currently broad non-binary range of intimacy potential and expression defies such simplistic categorizations of orientation / preference and that the evolution of artificially or naturally lit walk-in closets should render the term obsolete in relation to sex except for routinely engaged closet organizers or the installation of slings.

[PeterRS]

53 minutes ago, unicorn said:

Well, he's won some awards, though only nominated for a Grammy (Best New Artist 2025--didn't win). Obviously, it's their personal decision, although it does annoy me that these artists seem to enjoy perpetuating the myth that one can't be successful if one's openly gay.

It still pisses you off? The history of Hollywood and indeed most of the entertainment world has for well over a century had gay men and women who stayed in the closet for one reason or another. Why it should concern any of us today rather amazes me. Do you plan to out him or anyone else for that matter? Surely there is much more in our world that is a great deal more important.

[Riobard]

3 hours ago, PeterRS said:

It still pisses you off? The history of Hollywood and indeed most of the entertainment world has for well over a century had gay men and women who stayed in the closet for one reason or another. Why it should concern any of us today rather amazes me. Do you plan to out him or anyone else for that matter? Surely there is much more in our world that is a great deal more important.

Good question. Left hand or right hand? Gossip about a mutual social function attendee versus sifting through seemingly endless reshared random news topics that already land in our news feeds? 

What to choose? What to choose? What to choose?

Oh … I know … exploring with a nice cold draft beer the just presented Booker Prize longlist, for example. 

[PeterRS]

32 minutes ago, Riobard said:

Good question. Left hand or right hand? Gossip about a mutual social function attendee versus sifting through seemingly endless reshared random news topics that already land in our news feeds? 

What to choose? What to choose? What to choose?

Oh … I know … exploring with a nice cold draft beer the just presented Booker Prize longlist, for example. 

I wish I could understand that post!

[thaiophilus]

1 hour ago, PeterRS said:

I wish I could understand that post!

I think I'm glad that I can't.

[Riobard]

3 hours ago, PeterRS said:

I wish I could understand that post!

 

3 hours ago, PeterRS said:

I wish I could understand that post!

I guess there are closets after all.

[PeterRS]

2 minutes ago, Riobard said:

 

I guess there are closets after all.

And i suppose you think that is funny. Haha!

[Riobard]

2 hours ago, thaiophilus said:

I think I'm glad that I can't.

That you see what? It’s you next Tuesday not all next Tuesday. 

[Riobard]

2 minutes ago, PeterRS said:

And i suppose you think that is funny. Haha!

Your call, being in charge of the beverage hall and all. Does your union not lobby for breaks? 

[floridarob]

7 hours ago, PeterRS said:

I wish I could understand that post!

I bet you didn’t expect us to agree so much on something, he only gets worse.... then disappears for awhile 😆

[Riobard]

3 hours ago, floridarob said:

I bet you didn’t expect us to agree so much on something, he only gets worse.... then disappears for awhile 😆

Now there’s that obsessive tracking characteristic of a tiresome troll manifested once again. So sorry not sorry you if your feefees are deprived of consistent opps for dissing others’ content. No bets needed. Your own history repeats itself like Groundhog Day was invented just for it.        
 

Those cycles of input are called “having a life”. Try it sometime. You might also come up with more interesting and less repetitive material, a respite that would incentivize more regular presence on the part of members not keen on being suffocated by the same central cadre of bossypants bores.

We have thousands of read receipts for many threads. A broader representation of contribution might result if some wannabe editorial teams yet actual epic fails here would just for gawd sake take a step back and share some of the oxygen in the room. 

[unicorn]

10 hours ago, thaiophilus said:

I think I'm glad that I can't.

 

11 hours ago, PeterRS said:

I wish I could understand that post!

It's often quite a challenge to understand @Riobard. His posts bring to mind the Tamarians from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Ostensibly their speech was translated into English, but communicating via almost indecipherable allegories. After reading a few times, one can at best get the gist of it.

 

[floridarob]

3 hours ago, Riobard said:

Now there’s that obsessive tracking characteristic of a tiresome troll

Says the guy that is saving a 5 year whatsapp 

And I remember Tomcal telling me a story about how you obsessively stalked him on social media to find out who he was, that's some serious trolling.


 

 

3 hours ago, Riobard said:

Those cycles of input are called “having a life”.

I attributed it to you falling off your meds or being released from the "home" occasionally..... kind of like gayinpattaya  making appearances when he was on an all nighter, spewing his, much less long winded rants 🤷‍♂️

 

 

3 hours ago, Riobard said:

just for gawd sake take a step back and share some of the oxygen in the room. 

No lack of oxygen here.... you just want it all for yourself, I kind of laugh when I see you frequently reply to your own posts..... probably giggling that people are scratching their heads wondering, wtf is he saying?


 

[PeterRS]

3 hours ago, Riobard said:

Those cycles of input are called “having a life”. Try it sometime.

I have always believed that by far the weakest (and, frankly, the most idiotic) of any 'put down' of another's contribution is the phrase "get a life". It is so monstrously stupid. As though the contributor does not already have a life and one that, in most cases I presume, he actually enjoys in his own way. That people have different views is part of all our lives. Thankfully we are all different and "get a life" means precisely nothing other than to illustrate the bankruptcy of the writer's ideas on what life actually means.

[Riobard]

10 hours ago, floridarob said:

Says the guy that is saving a 5 year whatsapp 

And I remember Tomcal telling me a story about how you obsessively stalked him on social media to find out who he was, that's some serious trolling.


 

 

I attributed it to you falling off your meds or being released from the "home" occasionally..... kind of like gayinpattaya  making appearances when he was on an all nighter, spewing his, much less long winded rants 🤷‍♂️

 

 

No lack of oxygen here.... you just want it all for yourself, I kind of laugh when I see you frequently reply to your own posts..... probably giggling that people are scratching their heads wondering, wtf is he saying?


 

This ought to be fun. You’re a liar, a fact distorter about your fake stalking story, and Tom and I get along and are friendly. He had long before posted his own social photos on our board and his image came up spontaneously in relation to joint Facebook contacts associated with a few of the brothel lads. He is imposingly distinctive looking. He didn’t grasp the media technicalities. But go ahead with your revisionist bull. Ask him yourself. 

I have receipts that reside in Messenger, and invitations for drinks in FtL. Yeah, I keep a few records in cases where my spidey sense is eventually the necessity of having to deal with bad actors. Always be prepared. You have no receipts, only the delusional assumption that because you’re a board squatter other members may be naïve enough to buy into your drivel. Ask him yourself. You keep bringing up third parties and now naming them because you’re crap at evidentiary content. So … receipts? Waiting with bated breath trying to summon a bit of oxygen sucked up by the troll brigade.

Then you randomly bring up some Pattaya guy you similarly criticize  and judge, with whom I have no familiarity? You may be a full time resident here because it’s no big stretch that in other contexts you are told to take a hike. 

What specific meds? You’re in hospitality, as you have posted,  though inconsistently hospitable. I’m pre-retirement Psychiatry faculty so a bit tuned in. 

[Riobard]

10 hours ago, PeterRS said:

I have always believed that by far the weakest (and, frankly, the most idiotic) of any 'put down' of another's contribution is the phrase "get a life". It is so monstrously stupid. As though the contributor does not already have a life and one that, in most cases I presume, he actually enjoys in his own way. That people have different views is part of all our lives. Thankfully we are all different and "get a life" means precisely nothing other than to illustrate the bankruptcy of the writer's ideas on what life actually means.

I assume you are referring to the resident troll obsessively tracking my board presence and grousing about my periodic absence, “disappearances”, as if my having a life is predicated on the imperative of consistent and sustained evidence of logging in and posting on an obscure chat board primarily oriented to activities that represent a small fraction of my interests. A sad sack of a guy manufacturing the false narrative that natural breaks in participation are an artefact of some substandard mental state.

So yeah, get a life. I think it’s a comparatively neutral burn than that of desperately resorting to the admonishment within a friendly debate to resume psychotropic meds. But a brighter person gets that and has the insight to realize the hypocrisy of piling on while virtue-signalling the importance of appreciating diversity. You seem to fall short of the kind of level of awareness that compensates for overloads of topic entries. 

[Riobard]

13 hours ago, unicorn said:

 

It's often quite a challenge to understand @Riobard. His posts bring to mind the Tamarians from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Ostensibly their speech was translated into English, but communicating via almost indecipherable allegories. After reading a few times, one can at best get the gist of it.

 

What a shock that head attention-seeking peanut gallerist, gossiping in mostly Debbie Downer style while dropping hints about his attendance access to seemingly endless fabulous parties, is observed interloping with irrelevant YouTube input in every aspect of board discussions. 

[PeterRS]

1 hour ago, Riobard said:

I assume you are referring to the resident troll obsessively tracking my board presence

Not at all. I was referring to you as you are the one who raised that stupidity about "getting a life" in yout post about my post. Clearly you have difficulty reading.

[Riobard]

17 minutes ago, PeterRS said:

Not at all. I was referring to you as you are the one who raised that stupidity about "getting a life" in yout post about my post. Clearly you have difficulty reading.

… while you cannot grasp nuance or concede that I was simply mirroring your own less impressive tendency to turn a point back on to the poster as if you had come up with something original. But I’m sure there are large swathes of readers here interested in unpacking your Russian Doll approach to post tracking.

Clearly your go-to is that anybody countering you suffers from illiteracy. That kind of one-note invariant repetitiveness tracks with a shortfall in fully lived life.

Where I might lack reading is trying to sort out what recycled news content with which you flood the bar might be worthy of attention. Some is; in sum, not.

[unicorn]

4 hours ago, Riobard said:

What a shock that head attention-seeking peanut gallerist, gossiping in mostly Debbie Downer style while dropping hints about his attendance access to seemingly endless fabulous parties, is observed interloping with irrelevant YouTube input in every aspect of board discussions. 

I'll respond in the language you'll understand: The river Temarc in winter.😄