All posts tagged: same-sex

What If Your Best Friend Is Your Soulmate?

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] A lot of the language we use to describe the crucial phases of friendship is borrowed from romantic relationships: friend “crush,” for example, or friend “break up.” A friend can stick around longer than a spouse and be the key to your daily sanity, and still lack a satisfying title. “Best friend”? “Buddy”? “BFF”? All of those fail to convey the weightiness such a relationship deserves. And what if you do “break up” with a best friend? Where do you put your grief? What are the rituals of mourning? In her new book, The Other Significant Others, Rhaina Cohen imagines how life would be different if we centered it on friends. She explains the extremes of friendship—situations in which pairs describe each other as “soulmates” and make major life decisions in tandem. We talk with Cohen about the lost history of friendship and why she cringes when couples at the altar describe each other as their “best friend.” Listen to the conversation here: Subscribe here: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Google Podcasts …

What Pope Francis’s Decree Means for Gay Catholics Like Me

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] Several years ago, my partner and I asked a priest for a blessing. We wouldn’t describe ourselves as particularly pious, but our Catholic faith has shaped our lives both as individuals and as a couple. We met more than a decade ago, volunteering on a spring-break service trip run by our university’s Catholic student center. We attend church most Sundays, volunteer occasionally at our parish, and try to live out the Gospel as best we can. We’re also gay, so when we approached the priest, we knew we were putting him in a difficult position: At the time, the Church didn’t officially allow clergy to bless same-sex couples. A priest can bless just about anything—person, place, object, event. The process has many forms and functions but ultimately serves to invoke God’s love and remind us of God’s presence. Some blessings occur within a liturgy, such as the one a priest offers a congregation after Mass. Others, like the blessing that my partner and I requested, are less formal; they’re offered spontaneously and wouldn’t be …

Yes Really – BBC Gladiators Has Apparently Revived This Fetish

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] Earlier this month, 90s favourite tv show Gladiators returned to our screens, hosted by father and son duo Bradley and Barney Walsh. With 16 competitors battling it out every Saturday on BBC One at 5.50pm, it’s just like the good old days with the original fighters and could be just what we need to get Saturday night TV back on track. However, according to one sexpert, this won’t just bring back memories of watching it 25 years ago but also, for some people, it could spell a resurgence of lycra fetishes. How Gladiators will turn the nation onto lycra again While the show is a little more polished than the one we all grew up watching, one thing that hasn’t changed is the fantastically tacky, bright lycra costumes that the competitors don throughout the series. Jessica Leoni of illicitencounters.com said: “While many will be tuning in to watch Gladiators for sheer entertainment, we can expect others to be fascinated for another reason entirely.” “Countless studies show that TV shows can have a huge impact …

How to Know Your Frenemy

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] Want to stay current with Arthur’s writing? Sign up to get an email every time a new column comes out. There are many different kinds of friends. Aristotle distinguished among friendships based on utility, pleasure, and virtue. Michel de Montaigne wrote about true friendship, which “grows up, is nourished and improved by enjoyment, as being of itself spiritual, and the soul growing still more refined by its practice.” In this column, I have written about the difference between real friends and deal friends. And then there is the frenemy. This portmanteau of friend and enemy first appeared as long ago as the late 19th century. It signifies a discordant relationship in which someone appears to be your friend or has a superficially friendly demeanor toward you but behaves in ways that real friends wouldn’t and shouldn’t. Perhaps the frenemy undermines you, manipulates your feelings, gaslights you, or says mean things about you behind your back. Identifying frenemies isn’t always easy, because the behavior can be designed to go undetected, or perhaps to be so …

Trump’s Plan to Police Gender

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] His campaign is promising a more repressive and dangerous America. Matt Huynh December 7, 2023, 6 AM ET Editor’s Note: This article is part of “If Trump Wins,” a project considering what Donald Trump might do if reelected in 2024. After decades of gains in public acceptance, the LGBTQ community is confronting a climate in which political leaders are once again calling them weirdos and predators. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has directed the Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate the parents of transgender children; Governor Ron DeSantis has tried to purge Florida classrooms of books that acknowledge the reality that some people aren’t straight or cisgender; Missouri has imposed rules that limit access to gender-affirming care for trans people of all ages. Donald Trump is promising to nationalize such efforts. He doesn’t just want to surveil, miseducate, and repress children who are exploring their emerging identities. He wants to interfere in the private lives of millions of adults, revoking freedoms that any pluralistic society should protect. Explore the January/February 2024 Issue Check …