Slog - Comments on Georgia on My Mind http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind As you've probably heard, the country of Georgia has been going through some rough shit in the South Ossetian War. I cover some basic facts of the war in this week's Last Days (see Monday) but none of that gets at why I'm semi-personally concerned about the citizens of Georgia, which is this: Georgia is the only non-North American locale I've ever spent time in. I went to Georgia for the same reason most people go to Georgia: To perform in a production of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Here's a photo, and before you get... Copyright 2008 Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:09:34 -0800 Sat, 23 Aug 2008 06:50:12 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by michael strangeways i know there are a few nitwits on Slog, but do you really have to tell us that college age students played all the roles in a college theater production?

There's not that many good roles written for 18-24 year olds...you can only do "Hair" so often...

and we need a better, (bigger) picture...we want to see what a young strapping Schmader looks like...AND your Brick.

]]> michael strangeways http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111798 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111798 Life Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:07:21 -0800 Comment by elenchos Well, the bright side is that gays in occupied Georgia will enjoy Russian standards of respect and protection.

]]> elenchos http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111808 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111808 Life Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:11:54 -0800 Comment by anthony Ouch. You actually threw away their contact info? Jeez. They seemed to be very hospitable. You could have at least written a letter saying you returned home safe if not more. It is hard to believe you flat out disregarded them after they opened their home to you, just because of their homophobia. How dangerous would it have been if you told them that you were banging "brick".

]]> anthony http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111813 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111813 Life Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:13:19 -0800 Comment by Will in Seattle @3 - sometimes people get killed for that there. So, in that respect, yes, it's slightly dangerous.

]]> Will in Seattle http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111817 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111817 Life Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:15:34 -0800 Comment by wino "You musn't be gay, Blue Boy, but please to enjoy the giant black Georgian Caterpillar stapled to my forehead for your pleasure."

]]> wino http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111835 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111835 Life Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:22:21 -0800 Comment by David Schmader 3: Yeah, I'm not proud of doing it, but I did it. I was just out of my teens, and had grown up in Texas, and the idea of someone hurting someone else for being gay was not foreign to me. For what it's worth, I left a big wad of (American) money for the family when I left, and Uri's English-speaking cousin wrote to say this allowed Uri's mom to take a trip she wouldn't have been able to otherwise. (The dollar was strong at this time.) That was our one post-Georgia interaction, and the return address on that letter was my second chance at keeping their contact info. But I lost it.

]]> David Schmader http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111843 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111843 Life Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:26:36 -0800 Comment by Fnarf Blue boy
that's what they call me
cause I'm so lonely
since I lost you
Blue boy
I'm known as blue boy
you found the new boy
and now we're through
I had a twinkle in my eye
when our sweet love was new
Now all I do is moan and cry
and hunger after you
Blue boy
I'll be a blue boy
until you need me as I need you
(Jim Reeves)

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111855 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111855 Life Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:33:38 -0800 Comment by rb Georgian guys are smolderingly hot. But yes, homophobia is a *big* problem there, as it is throughout the Caucasus. It's a very macho, very traditional region.

Incidentally "blue boys" is borrowed from Russian (goluboi singular, golubye plural). It's not really a pejorative. Lesbians are "pink" (rozovye). "Gei", borrowed from English is becoming more common, at least in Russia. But if someone calls you pidor or pidarast, well, them's fightin' words.

]]> rb http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111864 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111864 Life Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:38:32 -0800 Comment by Bellevue Ave If you don't want to get beaten for being gay, simply don't be gay or at least stop talking nelly.

This seems to be the attitude Dan Savage has towards things he disagrees with. To paraphrase; "If you don't want to be on my shitlist do these things different than you are, situation be damned."

]]> Bellevue Ave http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111886 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111886 Life Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:48:13 -0800 Comment by rob @3: I totally understand his reaction. Before I came out, and without really making a conscious decision to do so, I drifted away from a best high-school friend, and a best college friend and wife and kids, all of whom had been sucked into fundy gay-hating Christian churches--even though they had other gay friends and had sporadically expressed soft support/understanding for gays. To the point where I haven't talked to them in 5-10 years and they no longer know where I live. In David's case, these superficially nice and considerate people also abetted physical violence and ostracism.

]]> rob http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111893 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111893 Life Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:52:34 -0800 Comment by Dominic Holden Bellevue @ 9) Being gay isn't like being an asshole. Gay people can't stop being gay, but you can stop being an asshole.

]]> Dominic Holden http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111899 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111899 Life Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:57:38 -0800 Comment by Fnarf @11, I see no evidence to support your last assertion.

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111946 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111946 Life Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:20:44 -0800 Comment by Bellevue Ave dominic, you and savage are resorting to a blackmnail campaign to advance an issue you feel is portrayed as one sided. my point is that coercive means like blackmail don't change the stories that get written, the fact you're gay, and only serves to undermine the message they're trying to push.

I just don't understand why you're resorting to methods that are s far beneath your integrity to lean on people to write stories that you could be writing.

this legalization mccarthyism towards other local papers deligitimizes your POV

]]> Bellevue Ave http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111948 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111948 Life Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:21:26 -0800 Comment by Rudy Ich in Ballard ...h'mmm...if your very life is in peril, I think butching it up a lot is just fine

play it right to save your nuts and butter for another day

Flame Hill here in Seattle gives us Queerer than Queer men a lot of room ... but the real world of rank and deadly killer homophobia is still out there ...

Remember Mica painter who was attacked here in Seattle by Bellevue Ukranian thug boys with a broken Vodka bottle - he was cut up badly, walking home from the now defunct Timberline

just sayin'

The Russian Army is famous for pairing up as in ancient Greece, they just never call it gay and do not talk much about it ... classic MSM, that crappy term which is quite accurate in some ways

]]> Rudy Ich in Ballard http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111957 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111957 Life Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:28:35 -0800 Comment by John Bailo To be chastised.
To be forced to another sexual orientation.
To be ostracised.

Yes, it is horrible, but now at least you know, what it's like to be a straight man in the Puget Sound.

It's a little like this series:

http://crackle.com/c/Gaytown

]]> John Bailo http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111975 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111975 Life Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:43:22 -0800 Comment by flamingbanjo A lot of otherwise kind people espouse some truly unkind beliefs. It is an age-old problem.

]]> flamingbanjo http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111983 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1111983 Life Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:46:22 -0800 Comment by rob There's an increasing problem with gay-bashing (including murder) in the U.S. by homophobic Russian/Slavic emigrants with ties to the "Watchmen on the Wall" group and fundamentalist/evangelical churches. Don't want to paint with a broad brush, but it can be a little nerve-wracking to be in a Costco or Wal-Mart in, say, Sacramento and hear Russian or another Slavic language being spoken all around you, often by skinhead-looking people. There are tens of thousands of expats from the former Soviet Union in many large metropolitan areas. Those who are non-homophobic, if any, should make a greater effort to speak out and differentiate themselves from those who are.

]]> rob http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1112016 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1112016 Life Fri, 22 Aug 2008 18:10:48 -0800 Comment by rob @17: "...and differentiate themselves from those who are homophobic."

]]> rob http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1112021 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1112021 Life Fri, 22 Aug 2008 18:15:58 -0800 Comment by anthony @4 I am living in texas. Born and raised in katy. What used to be a small town outside of houston. I haven't encountered any anti gay violence or anything... yet. I am not denying it exists. I guess I've just been lucky. I do understand why you didn't tell them. From the way you describe the family I find it hard to believe they would suddenly turn on you though. And leaving that money was nice of you.

]]> anthony http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1112035 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1112035 Life Fri, 22 Aug 2008 18:28:39 -0800 Comment by lenin ghost Unfortunately that's not only Georgia, it's all post Soviet Union countries, like Ukraine, Poland, Baltic states, even Czech republic. Communism was very anti gay. Anti sex for that matter. So that's one of the things people never thought about. Being gay was counter culture, which was too American.

]]> lenin ghost http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1112202 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1112202 Life Fri, 22 Aug 2008 23:31:53 -0800 Comment by Vince Sometimes I have little hope for mankind.

]]> Vince http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1112332 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/08/georgia_on_my_mind#c1112332 Life Sat, 23 Aug 2008 06:50:12 -0800