Friend helping me out in the car gay
March 02, 2017
The Epidemic of
Gay LonelinessBy Michael Hobbes
I
“I used to get so elated when the meth was all gone.”
This is my friend Jeremy.
“When you acquire it,” he says, “you have to keep using it. When it’s gone, it’s like, ‘Oh nice, I can go help to my life now.’ I would stay up all weekend and depart to these sex parties and then feel love shit until Wednesday. About two years ago I switched to cocaine because I could work the next day.”
Jeremy is telling me this from a hospital bed, six stories above Seattle. He won’t tell me the strict circumstances of the overdose, only that a stranger called an ambulance and he woke up here.
Jeremy is not the acquaintance I was expecting to have this conversation with. Until a few weeks ago, I had no idea he used anything heavier than martinis. He is trim, intelligent, gluten-free, the kind of guy who wears a serve shirt no matter what day of the week it is. The first time we met, three years ago, he asked me if I knew a good place to do CrossFit. Today, when I ask him how the hospital’s been so far, the first thing he says is that there’s no Wi-F
The facial hair comes up because it has to. After all, the unofficial rulebook for any Americana artist stipulates somewhere that wherever an acoustic guitar shall go, a full beard must too. And so Ben Platt is all about his furry face, but not just because he’s in full-on folk-roots mode for his third solo album, “Honeymind.”
Considering this particular genre isn’t necessarily a welcoming platform for openly queer musicians (or even close to one), there is a quiet rebelliousness to Platt simply existing in that space — just ask Beyoncé, who shook up the country community just for being a Black artist releasing her rural-toned “Cowboy Carter,” a nod to her Southern roots. As for Platt, his subtle defiance is front and center on the album’s cover, as he queers a classic vintage car-makeout scene while straddling the lap of his fiancé, Noah Galvin, but it is also embedded in its songs of longing, love and more love, too.
During a recent April afternoon from his place in New York, I spoke with Platt about the reasons he’s especially proud to be an openly gay artist on “Honeymind,” how buying his first home with Galvin inspired one very special anthem on the album and how he real
Coming out online as a gay teen: Good or bad?
"I think the first person I told physically was a teacher. She wasn't gay. She was just a nice person and I think I was 13.
Before that I talked to quite a lot of people online, who gave me the courage to come out at school.
I actually met my 'best internet friend' over a fan-fiction website. We wrote about Glee! I met my other 'best internet friend' through Tumblr.
I told her that I really liked her blog and she became one of my main support systems. We've actually met twice in real life which was pretty surreal.
The internet was the only thing I had prior to coming out. I wasn't specifically looking for queer people, they just seemed to be there.
I came out on Facebook. I put a post saying 'There are rumours I'm a lesbian and I'm not going to decline that' and I got loads of good responses on the Facebook status
But I also had an ask.fm account attached to my Facebook and had hundreds of messages telling me to kill myself.
I think it was just a few people sending a lot of messages so it was really difficult. I should be allowed to contain internet access without the fea
Nick started working with my dad at the trucking company when I was about 14. Him and my dad became speedy friend and he'd reach over to help my dad with home reno, fixing his truck, the occasional holiday get together and we'd also returned the favor over the years. He was your typical trucker stereotype: about 6'2", 280lbs, heavy put, with longish greying hair and a beard to match, very "country" and somewhat crude in his dialect with his gruff voice.
My dad pretty much freaked out when I came out to him around age 23 and it was Nick that calmed him down and told him I was still his son, a good "kid" and that it didn't matter who I "got down with". Unless you see me actually having sex with a guy or I told you about it, you would never ponder I was gay. I stand at about 5'10", 180lbs, buzzed dirty blond hair, a short beard and have a decent muscular body from my younger years working on farms and when I was old enough, I went to work at the trucking company loading and unloading trailers occupied of merchandise up until I moved to the big city to participate in college and get my degree. Nick, along with my dad, were the ones who moved me into my apartment. I'm more into trucks, firm
Getting Wet in the Car
Brandon's bladder throbbed, pressing heavily down between his legs. He clenched his muscles to enhance his resistance as he gazed forward out the windshield. "Damn," he murmured. "I really drank a lot of water before we left."
"You really did." His boyfriend Andre sounded calmly amused. This pretense was all part of the exciting charade. "You're very adequately hydrated."
"Can we stop? I...no, never consciousness, it's okay." He squirmed, trying to find a position that would build his bulging bladder ache less.
Andre sent him a wicked glance. "Why? What's wrong?"
"Nothing. Only I..." Brandon felt the heat of a genuine blush in his face. He lowered his glance as if flustered (because the shyness was part of the game too), and pressed his thighs together. "I'd like to...to hold a break, is all."
"Are you trying to tell me you need to pee?"
"A man would say he needed to 'piss'," Brandon returned, because he always had to include a small bit of attitude.
"Well. A man could hold it longer, then." Smiling, Andre continued driving the lovely coastline road.
"But...please, I...look, I've actually had to depart ever since we set out an hour ago. I'm..." Blushing deeper, B