The story below is a work of fiction.
A light rain. He offered the guy space under his umbrella, but he said he was okay without it. He wondered if it would seem kind of gay to the guy, since it seemed like that to him. What kind of unfortunate linguistic determinism is it that the word “guy” is so close, phonetically and glyphically, to “gay.” Same with “homophone” and “homophobe,” interestingly. Indian contractors from his old job can sometimes be seen, off the clock, walking around in open air, holding hands and dancing with each other if you happened into one of their own clubs. Not gay at all, just their dude culture. Must be nice to have a bunch of guy friends, he thought, that you could sidle up to like that in a friendly way without having to disclaim it with a “no homo” or worry that you’re going to morph into a fruit. Hell, it even feels gay just wishing to be a part of it. That’s when you know things are pretty bad.
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It’s like that all over the eastern part of the world — men in close physical contact without a hint of being effeminate.
Take a look at the photos at http://www.homohistory.com/
I’m willing to bet most of the dudes photographed weren’t gay. We retrofit gayness into friendly/intimate male touch. I mean, most modern men wouldn’t dare be photographed that way today unless they were openly gay or making an obvious joke.
Undoubtedly, there has to be some negative psychological effects to not experiencing intimate touch/bonding like that.
EDIT: grammar/clarity
Oh, but there are negative consequences. We are wired to desire that kind of bonding even in the most manly ways. Oddly enough, as homosexuality became more mainstream, touching became more forbidden outside gay relationships.
And we also backread gay stuff into scripture. I’ve come across plenty of arguments online about how Jonathan and David were gay, the Matthew 14 narrative about the naked/half naked fishermen was actually an orgy at sea. It’s kinda funny, in a way, the way people twist themselves to claim they have salacious insider knowledge of this stuff.