Sunday, June 17, 2012

Thought for the Day, #45


But I had no reference for an emotional life with another man.  All I knew was sex.  I didn't know what was required of me to be, and keep, a boyfriend.  No doubt that was the cumulative effect of more than two decades of homophobia in the Arab world and the complete absence of any discussion of emotions when you're a man....  I could enjoy the sex and the gay identity but not the emotional life and responsibility that came with it.

(From Kamal Al-Solaylee's Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes, pages 139 and 140)

You don't need to originate from the Middle East, Kamal, to know this experience.

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