Your orientation

[moremojo]

For anyone interested:

I just responded to this poll, but to ensure that I don't lurk in anonymity, I am a gay male (will answer to queer and homosexual also). I'm also single and available ...

Scott

[Impish]

I'm also single and available ...

Scott M. in Austin, Texas

hmmmm..... Not too far away from my home, Albuquerque, NM.....

[David]

Oh?   are we adding availability status to the Poll?   Hehehe!

Single.....Sigh, so very single.   

[Jeff Wrangler]

Ya know, this poll is kind of giving me the courage to mention something I've been privately wondering, that kind of relates to this poll.

I've been wondering what role, if any, age, gender, and orientation play in who we find "more attractive," Ennis or Jack. (I suppose a straight male wouldn't find either "attractive.")

I'll only use myself as an example of what I'm wondering about. I'm a middle-aged gay male--and Jack is my ideal fantasy young cowboy lover, no doubt about it. But, I honestly ask myself, if were 20--okay 25--years younger, would I be more attracted to strong, silent "daddy" Ennis? Quite possibly, I might be.

[isabelle]

Oh?   are we adding availability status to the Poll?   Hehehe!

Single.....Sigh, so very single.   

Well, David, which would you rather be: very single? or technically in a relationship, 'cos you're living with that person, but feeling like you ARE single? 
I'm afraid I fall - I am falling - in the second category, and find it uncomfortable. I like situations to be clear. I want to be really single when I am feeling available  

[serious crayons]

Well, David, which would you rather be: very single? or technically in a relationship, 'cos you're living with that person, but feeling like you ARE single? 
I'm afraid I fall - I am falling - in the second category, and find it uncomfortable. I like situations to be clear. I want to be really single when I am feeling available   

I hear you, Isabelle! As we have noted before.

[TJ]

Say, I like this kind of poll because some Brokeback Mountain forums' and Yahoo Group's moderators/monitors think that gender and sexual orientation are irrelevant to the discussion of the movie and the book.

While I strongly believe that I was born with the sexual orientation of homosexuality exclusively, I did not become "gay" until I left the proverbial homosexual closet of denial in March 1984 after my 41st birthday (Nov. 4).

Empirical evidence proves that a person's sexual orientation is apparently decided before a person is born. By divine inspiration, I have to believe that my sexual orientation was was decided at the very moment of conception and it was inherited through my father's father's branch of the family tree.  I don't know of any homosexuals or gay person on my mother's side of the family. My mother had an aunt who was her father's half-sister (different mothers) who had a son a few years younger than me who liked sex with guys when he was a teen growing up. Where that came from for him, I cannot say.

[kudzudaddy]

Howdy,

I voted.

May I say how tired I am of the word "gay," though?   I'm becoming downright resentful.  Never been one for bars (haven't set foot in one in 15 years - infrequent and irregular attendance prior to that.)  Been once to Fire Island (or equivalent party spot)  not obsessed with clothes, appearance...  anyway... you get the idea.  While sexually attracted only to males, I've never shared much else with the "gay" community at large.  In fact, I've often been outright rejected by it.  None if this is meant as a criticism of that lifestyle -- some people hate brussels sprouts, I love' em (go figure.) -- but it's just not appealling to me.

Anyway...  I think we need to find another word... a new word... one that conveys clearly where one's emotional/sexual energies focus, but does not conjur up all the attendant stereotypical images.

Maybe I'm dreaming...   or being silly (neither beyond the realm of possibility.)  Queer is better, I think, but for me smacks too much of "in your face"  as in "we're here, get over it!))  And homosexual has always been a problem.  A Latin/Greek hybrid that should have died in Mr. Kertbeny's notes never to be heard of again.  Homophile, while at least a real word, doesn't convey the "sexual" side, it simply means Love of the Same.

I'm sure I'm not the first to pose this but I'd welcome any thoughts...  (Mods, if this is the wrong place for this, tell me where and how I can move it.)

We also need a new word to replace "wife" or "husband" in the context of same sex marriage.

But that's a rant for another time...

Just my 2 cents

Kudz

[TJ]

"Husband?"

That reminds me of the time I had gone to the Rawhide Club in N. Hollywood and for some reason, Ed, was going to show up later.

When our mutual friend, Paul, saw me at the bar, he asked, "Where's your husband?"

I said, "I don't have a husband."

Then Paul explained his use of he word. He said, "Jack and I each consider ourself to be a husband. A husband is one who cares for the person with whom he lives."

"Husband" literally means "one who holds a house" or owns one.

[kudzudaddy]

Indeed...  point well taken

And as a verb, it also means to nurture, use well or sparingly, etc., as in "to husband one's resources."

I was kinda hoping for a totally new term as this one is so totally tied to the old paradigm.  But, it's not an easy task to come up with one.

That said husband/husband would not bother me...

I often think of the Greeks and their delineation of Eromenos/Erastes - neither of which translates well (Lover/Beloved -- too sappy/romantic for my tastes.)  The Spartans, on the other hand, I like very well... I forget the original words but they translate to  Inspirer/breather-in  (inspire in the dual sense or providing inspiration/breathing.  -- interesting semantic tangle there...

But since both of these derive from the pederastic model... perhaps we should look elsewhere.