• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

London Gay Pride

R

rottweilsteve

Well-Known Member
Messages
80
Location
Cymru
Dislikes
incorrect punctuation (see above), Otherwise dishonesty, discrimination, prejudicial behaviour. and general nastiness.
4 July 2009 - sorry I can't join everyone there (is there a diabetic group marching?), but energy levels, money and dog-sitting say that I stay in North Powys. But I send my best wishes to anyone going there, as does the Princess B'Elana, Queen of the F***ing Universe.

<reversion to grumpy old man> it's not the same as the old days when it was a big political demonstratation....

hugs, rottie slurps, and bright blessings

Steve
 
I have not been to Pride for a number of years, used to love the march :D and I remember being very impressed by the drag queens who did the whole thing in 6 inch stilettos :shock: There is something wonderfully powerful about the march, I loved the feeling of being part of a huge community. I often feel quite invisible here in Darkest Bukinghamshire. And having kids means that people assume you are straight.

Last time I went my son was quite small and I decied that I couldn't cope with the toilet issues again, not just for me but for my son :? although he is a lot bigger, toilet trained and capable of carrying his own lunch!

Karen, I hope that yo and everyone else who did get there had an absolutely fabulous time :D 8) I have been looking at some of the pics online - the costumes look fabulous as usual.

Perhaps we could be the queer diabetic group next year, Steve?
 
My youngest son told my husband and I he was gay two years ago. My instinct was to hug him and reassure him that I love him unconditionally but inside (even though I'd guessed yonks before) my heart was breaking. I suppose you have expectations of a straight marriage and grandchildren and suddenly those expectations were gone.I cried for months afterwards but as a mother you have to make a choice....you can either turn your back on your son and lose him forever or accept him for who and what he is and realise he is still the same person you loved from day one. I chose the latter. I am hugely proud of both my sons but my youngest being gay is not something I dwell on now. He is kind, clever,funny, considerate to others and works so, so hard. What mother could not be proud of a son like that? Oh and his partner is a real sweetie too. I could not have wished for a nicer young man to join our family.
As for Gay Pride.....my son is such a private person, that he'd rather hide than take part in that but each to his own.It wouldn't do for us all to be the same!
 
I always knew my son didn't want children but I hoped he'd change his mind when he 'met the right girl'. He still says he doesnt want children. I think he wants to travel the world and be free to experience all those things with no ties, so I respect his decision. I have to count myself lucky that my other son and his wife have given me a beautiful little grandson.Us grandmothers need some little 'uns to spoil!!! :D
 
Hi all,
It is so refreshing to visit a site like this. I am 39 years old single man. I think I maybe gay, still in closet. I am also diabetic type 1. Diabetes and been gay are not very compatible for me. I have come up with many obstacles in my life. The setting up of a forum for people who are gay and have diabetes would be very beneficial.
It is good this forum opens up a door!

Cheers
C
 
cyrryan said:
Hi all,
The setting up of a forum for people who are gay and have diabetes would be very beneficial.
It is good this forum opens up a door!

Cheers
C
Click to expand...

Years ago, I would have been with you on this one, but times change... First change is the change in public opinions towards Lesbians, gay men, and transgendered people. That has certainly gone more our way than I ever expected it to in my lifetime (and I'm only 52, albeit with a diagnosis of aids to go with my D2). People who make it onto specialised internet forums as opposed to gambling sites and facebook tend to be a bit more broadminded and intelligent than you might think - well, aren't we? :D

You're welcome to PM me if you feel that there's something only someone you know for sure is gay can help, but I can assure you that I'm not the only gay in the forum <tired old joke> though I do intend making a t-shirt or two with a photo of my dog and the caption "The only rottweiler in the village", just as soon as someone can tell me my Welsh translation is accurate (gotta have every bilingual!)

The trouble with splitting fora into smaller and smaller interest groups is that you end up with and interest group of just one or two. Example my brother has D1, and reckons that he got it from radical stomach surgery before the discovery of helicobacter pylorii at the end of the eighties. I've got type two, which I'm as sure as I can be is a result of taking anti-HIV drugs. Before my brother and I there were no indications of diabetes in the family whatsoever: we regard our present conditions as co-incidence. But perhaps, since my brother is also gay we should set up a forum for gay siblings with non-concordant diabetes... You see where it leads? Far better we just muck in together under the lowest common denomiter and explain extra details as we go along, if necessary.

Anyway, lecture over :mrgreen: - I do know that I go on a bit...

Croeso!

Steve
 
Hi again,

I am delighted to be back :D . I am still struggling with diabetes and been gay!! It is difficult for me to find a lover who will accept me and my condition. As a diabetic I dont drink alcohol or smoke! This has created a social phobia in my life which is unbearable at times!! Life is to be enjoyed as much as we can but I find it an endurance test. Diabetes is difficult for me and I am sure for many others. Been Gay and living with type 1 diabetes is very difficult for me. :( I cry sometimes but only hope one day there will be a cure for diabetes. I may seem to be feeling sorry for myself but I want to feel this way. I believe that this forum and site is brilliant and helps me to cope better.
Thanks forum and thanks to all those fine and lovely people out there who read this!!
It means so much and you are so good!
Caoireall
 
And I'm delighted to see you back! How have you been?

You set me to thinking: okay I was happily married (to a man: it was very romantic - we exchanged wedding rings outside HS Samuels in Peckham Rye. No reception, just shopping in Safeways) for most of the past ten years. Soon after that the kids started coming along, and people get edgy when you take rottweilers into a bar, so I haven't actually been inside a gay bar in over ten years. In fact the only gay people I know I know are friends from the old days who I keep in touch with. I was on high dose ritonavir and it's true: it's chemical castration, and also is a leading cause amongst HIV drugs of hyperglycaemia. I'm not taking it any more, but I just got out of the habit... Besides, you can almost as much fun window-shopping! And without having to make small talk over breakfast in the morning.

I'm sure someone's already said it to you, but if you need to inject with people around, explain what it is, show them the whatsit - people get paranoid and it's not their fault that that they're stupid. They're better of than the people the kid saw in The Sixth Sense. Maybe... ;-)

Twenty years ago I was expressing the hope that eventually HIV would eventually become manageable, like diabetes. Joke's on me: if I could get rid of only one from my life I'd choose diabetes, despite going through a spell of low-immune-system nasties right now. I think the reason for feeling like that is that I long ago made peace with HIV (or at least established a truce) which is something I haven't yet done with diabetes.

I know it sounds horrible political correctness having mental health difficulties, but I never think of myself as diabetic. I have diabetes or live with diabetes. Same thing with aids. My illnesses do not define who I am. I'm Steve the rottweiler (as opposed to Steve the smokes or Steve the smithy - lotta Steves in our valley!), who'll you see twice a day out with the dog, or wandering up to the old shop with a meal in a pot, or a bottle of wine, or on the bus into Welshpool and so on... Who just happens... get my drift?

Hwyl

Steve
 
cyrryan said:
I am still struggling with diabetes and been gay!
Click to expand...

The mind boggles - what diabetes issues have been a hinderance when trying to 'be gay'? I don't think it's ever been a problem for me! I'm actually trying to rack my brain to think of a situation where I've thought it'd be easier if I wasn't diabetic. Ok, maybe going out and staying over at someones flat when I've not planned ahead and taken insulin with me, but that's often a good excuse for an early morning getaway where one is needed :lol:
 
caspararemi said:
cyrryan said:
I am still struggling with diabetes and been gay!
Click to expand...

The mind boggles - what diabetes issues have been a hinderance when trying to 'be gay'? I don't think it's ever been a problem for me! I'm actually trying to rack my brain to think of a situation where I've thought it'd be easier if I wasn't diabetic. Ok, maybe going out and staying over at someones flat when I've not planned ahead and taken insulin with me, but that's often a good excuse for an early morning getaway where one is needed :lol:
Click to expand...

In the words of the anonymous gay steel worker in the Simpson's episode Homer's Phobia: "Oh, be nice". A lot of people feel self-conscious when there's something different about them, and being gay and being diabetic definitely fit into the category of different. The trick is to ignore the difference. You and I might be perfectly comfortable about being gay and diabetic: why should we assume that everyone else in the same position is? Besides which, the post you're responding to is from last December: who, apart from cyrryan, knows how cyrryan is feeling now?
 
I responded as I'm genuinely curious! I've always considered the two utterly separate and would like to know what issues might be faced I haven't considered, possibly to offer some support & reassurance that its not impossible to get by as a gay diabetic :)
 
caspararemi said:
I responded as I'm genuinely curious! I've always considered the two utterly separate and would like to know what issues might be faced I haven't considered, possibly to offer some support & reassurance that its not impossible to get by as a gay diabetic :)
Click to expand...

Take as your analogy HIV. Now before everyone gathers up theirs skirts in a hissy fit (not that I expect them too, but I do like the image!) about how diabetes is nothing like HIV, in the dark days of the eighties, when everyone had a funeral to go to every week, our shining hope was that that HIV would become a controllable illness, "just like diabetes".

I have type 2 diabetes, so I can easily hide my gliclazide in with the rest of the pills. (Not that I get the chance to have anyone to hide them from out here in the middle of nowhere!) My brother (T1, HIV-) is constantly aware of the curiosity and occasional hostility of others when he needs to inject. There are times when you think public ignorance couldn't go any lower, and then it does. My brother is something of a high flyer, eating in the expensive places, yet has still been asked to "do it in the toilet". Injecting, that is...

It's really difficult to say any more as it was cyrryan's posts that opened up this discussion beyond the narrow parameters of last year's Pride. Maybe this difficulty is a reason why a separate forum would be a good idea: from what I've seen over the past [mumblety]five years (okay, I remember the Sex Pistols) coming out hasn't got any easier, and though I've only been diagnosed diabetic for a few years, I'm still coming to terms with that while still dealing wih life as an out gay man in a small village - no, smartarse, it's not Llanddewi Brefi, though I do have the only rottweiler in the village. The fact that I'm also a longterm survivor of HIV disease (and that my diabetes was almost certainly caused by the anti-hiv drugs) is another thing to think about.

I can imagine situations where a diagnosis of diabetes encourages someone to go the rest of the way and start coming out as lesbian/gay in a "let's get it all over with". I recant my posting of 02 August 2009 and hereby state that I think that lesbians, and especially gay men (as a result of early versions of anti HIV drugs) should have a self run forum within this board.

Steve
 
Back
Top