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We're out There
In high school, Mike was the typical jock...a star athlete, prom king, popular with all the girls...an all around golden child from a Christian family. But that's where the stereotype ends. Mike realized several years ago that, for him, love knows no gender. He dates guys and girls, and is still questioning whether he's bi-sexual or gay. Mike comes to DC to be an environmentalist, but unexpectedly finds the inspiration to help advance marriage rights for gay and lesbian Americans. His sexuality has caused some tension back home, and it's his time in D.C. that will prove to be the turning point for him and his family in terms of accepting him for who he is.
This guy has got his proverbial shit together. Seems smart..knows what he wants..brave as hell to come out to people on TV (MTV's Real World) as bi..and damn sexy!
4 comments:
I have just discovered your blog and found we are on similar paths. Nice to see you present a model of someone who seems to have succeeded in being out about their identity, but also have their sexual orientation not be the defining characteristic of their public persona.
Not sure how you are handing your more bold explorations while maintaining a self assured home life with your wife and kids. That is way beyond what I could imagine for myself at this point. It takes a lot of energy and time to do it all AND keep the blog going. Even with no flings and fuck buddies the sheer yearnings and curiosity and web surfing can invade the space-time of home life.
You are one of only a few blogger guys I have discovered trying to figure it out by both acting on your instincts and reflecting about what you are doing. You have shown some real intimate and tender sides too. And to us readers, no guilt so we see you claiming some freedom we envy.
Sure the images you give us are a turn on, but it is your tale of self discovery that makes the site compelling to me.
Adding role models who have resolved themselves is also a plus. Guys like us need to land somewhere different from where we took off. Somewhere between finding better comfort with a rich but still secret fantasy life, and finding comfort only through a dramatic change of public identity and relationship definitions. This is about sex but way bigger because it is about identity and fulfillment.
Guys like us need guys like you to do some trail blazing, even if we may not go all the ways down the path you make.
Thanks
We all have so much more in common than the differences in writing styles suggest, and I hope I did not stumble unawares into being perceived as the literary bi guy critic by letting my few readers hear what I think of you and of Scott, both of whom I read avidly and feel affinity toward.
Scott just discovered you and wrote with some clear admiration of your writing style-and I tried to reassure him that he had his own voice and compared to you I called it gusto. You have to admit that it jumps and lurches out of Scott with a sense of immediacy that is hard to fake. Scott, if you read this, god damn it take this as a compliment.
That does not diminish the qualities of your own prose or voice or the clear designerly touches to your site and the artistry of the photos. I will disclose my own design background and see from your site I have very far to go in the visual artistry of blogs.
I admire the craft of your site not just the craft of the writing and know this takes a huge amount of time as well as talent. Would you take offense if I said you were more Urbane, or Metropolitan...wouldn't curse you with the Sophisticated label but If Scott has Gusto you have Verve. (with all the intended associations to great Jazz classics)
Both of you have the gift of being good story tellers. We can love Hemingway and Faulkner, Hotspur and Hal, George Clooney and Colin Farrell. Bob Dylan and Bach. And I hope we all three of us want our prose to dance off the pages like one of Twyla Tharps men.
apologies if you took offense
Mike Manning sure does have his shit together, it takes a lot of Courage to open your heart to family and the world that one has sex with men and is happy within ( i know that road as I am out to my wife)he is a man who happens to have an understanding of who he is in this big big world of ours and a great role model for others out there.
Mate he is a dammn good looking to boot!
If only us guys who are married who have sex with other men had his courage back in our youth and our path in life as it is today might be a diffrent journey indeed.
Keep happy BLM chat to you again soon..Cheers Wally
A lot of things appear when I open your blog...
I like "I kiss girls and boys", I'll use it on my blog, SVP
Kisses
LZH
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