The Gay Virus

AIDS was the event that defined my coming of age, and it was the event that defined homosexuals as a "people". Gay men died because of AIDS, and AIDS killed only gay men (at first). To the new religious right, we were God's gift - proof that homosexuality was indeed sinful, hadn't He brought against us a plague? How useful for them we have been.

Later, rumors of conspiracy appeared. Some said that AIDS was a secret bio-weapon, created by the government. I don't know if that is true, but I do have an anecdote. My friend Bob lives in NYC, and back in the day, The Saint was the hottest, most notorious gay disco in town. He recalls that just before the beginning of the AIDS crisis, the Red Cross had set up a free Hepatitis vaccination center in the lobby - injecting any who were willing. Later, he had an intuition that those Red Cross workers might have been injecting more than just vaccines. Paranoid? Perhaps, but from what has come to light about the secret machinations of various governmental agencies, only Pollyanna wouldn't raise an eyebrow.

The Meme

A meme is a mental virus, spread through the population much like a computer virus. There seems to be no inoculation against them, and it has been argued that none is desired - freedom of expression above all! I have the feeling that some expressions are more free than others, much like "free" trade.

Apparently, the visualization of a global pandemic is an expression that "has legs". The news media keeps us up to date with threats of bird flue, mad cow, AIDS ( a perennial), and rising stars like mutant TB. If that isn't enough, Hollywood steps in with all manner of deadly perils:

'V for Vendetta' shows a once proud USA reduced to barbarism (our present barbaric condition notwithstanding) thanks to a bio-engineered weapon that has caused total societal collapse (society = good, FYI).

'28 Days Later' and '28 Weeks Later' visualize a plague called "Rage" that turns people into instant homicidal maniacs (like instant rabies), the only "cure" is to shoot the infected as quickly as you can, before they infect YOU. The Marines are called in.

'Ringu' (The Ring Virus, The Ring) is a Japanese horror/mystery film that imagines a virus as a cursed videotape that, once you watch it, will kill you in seven days, unless you give the tape to another victim. An ingenious method of spreading its "seed", one must admit.

'Children of Men' is a dystopian vision of a planet made sterile via environmental and societal breakdown, and while not technically a virus, is still important to my musings.

The Gay Virus

Meanwhile, another meme is spreading - the Transform virus - the heart's desire of gay men. If that gay virus ever did manifest into the world, it would literally BE the dystopian pandemic meme, made flesh. A virus called "Lust" that instantly turns any man into a hot, musclebound, cum-hungry stud!

Let's run that movie to it's logical conclusion: The victims of LUST become gay - AKA "sterile" and the writing is on the wall. If this virus is allowed to propagate, the whole human race is endangered! Thankfully, an antidote is discovered, and via the International Red Cross, it is quickly administered to a terrified population. To prove your immunization, the Red Cross stamps your hand with its insignia - its mark.

In other words, the ultimate gay fantasy results in the destruction of the world. Holy shit!

Interestingly, that movie has already been made: 'The Hole' (The Holy?) is a gay version of the Ringu meme - a videotape that turns any man who watches it into a fag.

Gregory Cochran is an evolutionary biologist who has incensed the politically correct with his analogy of homosexuality as an infection - a virus. It makes me wonder. What IF homosexuality is a kind of divine infection? An alien invasion? How Borg like, how invading Israelite, how... male!

Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. --Matthew 13:33

More Gay Bombs

From Xymphora:

A few days ago, an Orthodox Jewish suicide bomber was apprehended by Israeli officials before he had a chance to set off his bomb at the Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade...

It is the gay press that has noticed that one of the latest London ‘bombs’ was on the route of the Gay Pride Parade, and the other parked nearby.

Fear and loathing of fags is the one thing Jews, Christians and Muslims can all come together about.

Shame

And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. --Gen.3:7

The Masons, who some claim secretly run the world, have also made themselves symbolic aprons that cover their genitals. Masons are proud of their secret knowledge, but like most men, are ashamed of their "privates". Are they subconsciously acting out this ancient archetype?

...Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? --Gen.3:11

It would appear that eating of the Tree of Knowledge is a double-edged sword. We acquire "gnosis", but the price is shame - very personal shame. I have a feeling this has become somewhat of a devil's bargain. Somehow, we've come to believe that our own dicks are shameful, and ironically, it is our dicks, through thick and thin, that are always there for us - man's best friend. Faithful, so to speak.

Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them. --Gen.3:21

OK, God sees Adam and Eve's sorry excuse for clothing, and even though he knows His glorious Image ought to be fully bared, his mercy and his pride has him designing better outfits for them! These "clothes" are traditionally rendered as shapeless caveman animal skins, but I suspect God is a better tailor than that. Maybe Adam's skins looked more like this?

Wen we overcome our shame, we'll step into the inheritance that is ours to claim - Sons (fractals) of the living Father.

Art by Etienne

Latter Days

I rented 'Latter Days' this week, yet another gay movie that shows the church in all it's hypocritical glory, and at the same time makes you believe in God, or at least, makes you WANT to believe.

Aaron (Steve Sandvoss); a young, hunky and virginal Mormon missionary meets Christian (Wesley A. Ramsey); a gay, anything but virginal, LA party boy. Their passionate romance leads to Aaron's excommunication, and to Christian's "dark night of the soul". When the affair (actually just a kiss) is discovered, Aaron heads back home to Pocatello, Idaho, and a grim welcome from his Mormon family. After being told that the loving God he truly believes in will never forgive him for being what he is, he attempts suicide via a razor blade, and failing that, is sent to a church approved psycho ward that, among other things, practices electro-shock aversion therapy/torture on his nuts!

This part of the movie is true to life - many gay men have been literally tortured by loving family, hoping to save them from a fate worse than torture - hell. The fear of hell is one of Satan's greatest weapons, and though karmic law/justice/logic demands it exists, I also think that hell is a place being built right here on earth, and men, not demons, are its gatekeepers. As a Christian Universalist, I accept the doctrine of Apokatastasis (the "restoration of all things"), and that loving mercy really does trump justice. Hell 'eternal' is a myth.

Back to the plot: thanks to a remarkable serendipity that writer/director C. Jay Cox makes abundantly clear could only have happened at the direction of a "higher power", Aaron and Christian (Jew and Gentile?) are reunited, and a tragedy is miraculously turned into a happy ending. The movie also features Jacqueline Bisset in a wonderful role, and like, how cool is that?

Why are fags able to write better Christian movies than Christians?

NOTES:

Tentmaker is a Christian Universalist site that gives a good overview of the whole idea. The site is named after Paul, the world's greatest missionary who never married, preferred the company of men, and openly thanked GOD that he had NO desire for women... *innocent shrug*. The reason it's called "Tentmaker" is because Paul literally made tents to support himself when between preaching gigs, and yea, the doctrine of universal forgiveness is like a "tent" that covers everyone, duh. It totally cracks me up that hard-ons are said to "tent" our pants - they're also "tentmakers".

The Gay Bomb

From the 'truth is stranger than fiction' department, comes this tidbit via QueerMeNow.

Dark Alley Media prepares to drop the Gay Bomb

...Gay Bomb will take us into the future and the year 2012. George the Second has refused to step down as leader of the “free world,” and the nations of Europe have banded together to fight the new American military dictatorship. Desperate to fend off its attackers, the US launches the experimental “gay bomb,” designed to make the enemy forces drop their guns and turn fag. But the winds of fate blow in a different direction, and soon America is brought to its knees.

Recent news headlines revealed that Pentagon insiders admitted to having truly considered the “gay bomb” as an example of non-lethal chemical warfare in the Iraq War. The Air Force asked for a $7.5 million grant to develop the idea, which was proposed to the government’s highest scientific authority.

Dark Alley’s Matthias von Fistenberg said, “We’re really not making this up. In fact, if the Pentagon officials wants to see the outcome of this project, they should tune into Dark Alley TV on December 1...

They really AREN'T making it up.

The Rainbow

Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God. --Rev 7:3

The "servants of our God" are sealed with a mark, or symbol, and so also the servants of the Beast are sealed with a mark. There's been no lack of conjecture about the infamous "Mark of the Beast" (666, a solar sign, the Star of David, the red cross of the Templars, a biochip implant). Yet, strangely, I've never read any musings about what form the other "mark" might take - the seal of the righteous. I think gay men may be the anointed that John spoke of (and yea, gay men have plenty of 'Christian' baggage to unload before that happens) and if that's so, then what IS our "mark", which is in fact the symbol of the 144,000?

A few clues:

Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth. --Rev 3:10

And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. --Gen 9:12-15

As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. --Matthew 24:37

It's interesting that the rainbow flag has become the international symbol of the Gay Pride movement - the sign of the covenant. As we head toward June 28, hundreds of gay pride parades will commemorate the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, and the streets of the great cities of the world will become literally flooded in the colors of the rainbow.

The Twin Towers

Since the destruction of the twin towers in 2001, I've become interested in the symbolism surrounding twins, and since we're now in Gemini, I may as well blog about it. As a card-carrying queer, I can't help but notice that towers and pillars are essentially phallic monuments. Men are the builders of skyscrapers, and men build them because they represent pride - a subliminal "fuck you" to their rivals. "My tower is bigger than yours" is a classic competition both in and out of the locker room. As usual, it all revolves around dick - and size DOES matter. Symbolically, twin towers = twin cocks.

Speaking of Two Towers, the Landover Baptist Church had this review of the movie:

Christian Moviegoers Beware! The Two Towers is Homo Slang For Erect Hobbit Penises

...The Two Towers are giant structures built to glorify and honor the aroused genitalia of two of the most powerful evil beings in the movie. The imagery is kept discrete only by the merciful fact that both creatures are uncircumcised – otherwise the shape of two enormous, throbbing purple penis heads would have been staring every moviegoer in the face! The citizens of Middle Earth pick which penis they like best and head toward it. The Two Towers are merely there to show what the macabre genitalia of each Dark Lord looks like from great distances. And as anyone who has been in a men's locker room can attest, it is only the dark ones you can see from clear across the room.

So, I'm not the only one who sees it. :-)

Twins are always showing up in ancient myths: Castor and Pollux, Romulus and Remus, The Sumerian twins Enki and Enlil, the twin Polynesian gods Kanaloa and Lono and many more, even Jesus was rumored to have a twin: Thomas (though I have to chuckle at the idea of the three Magi showing up with gifts for the new born Messiah, and poor Thomas, shoved away in a back stable or something).

The bible has more twins than a Doublemint gum commercial. Twin trees in the Garden of Eden, twin cherubs covering the Ark of the Testament, twin columns of Solomon's temple, two beasts and two witnesses in John's Revelation.

Some say that the twin of Jesus is Satan (or Lucifer, as he was called before his fall from heaven), two brothers who were made to war over the earth, which would echo the Sumerian myth, and also bring about a nice symmetry to our experience of good and evil, yin and yang. Most mystery religions have Enki playing the role of the good, rebellious brother, while Jewish and Christian traditions hold the rebel angel to be the wicked one.

Enki is the bringer of wisdom and knowledge (not to mention music, writing, magick, science, alchemy, metallurgy, medicine, agriculture and money), as well as being the "cornerstone" of every great civilization. You won't find many people dissing Enki or his son 'progress', though the book of Enoch says that every advance in science and knowledge is due to the influence of rebellious Watchers (Prometheus stealing fire from the Gods), and seeing how every advance has brought even greater "knowledge" of evil, I don't doubt it.

For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. --1 John 2:16

There were two trees in the Garden of Eden and the one that Eve "ate" of was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, or TKGE. It's a very great tree - all civilization and human achievement is built upon it. Think "black monolith" in Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey'. It's also the tree associated with the serpent, Lucifer, Satan, Enki.

The other tree in the garden was the Tree of Life, and it gives immortality. The fruit of THAT tree has been sought as diligently as the other. Mankind has long feasted on the occasionally sweet, often bitter fruit of the TKGE, but that other tree, it has eluded us completely.

In the gay fantasy opus 'Transform' (see Brothers In Arms), when guys are "transformed", they grow two huge perfect cocks, that are able to twine around each other like snakes! Uh oh... snakes, trees, the garden. The only explanation offered is that they've become too masculine for just one cock, so they grow another. Hmmm.

Another insight is from the erotic story 'Pollination', by Absman420. When a father and son are "transformed" into their ideal sexual selves, they appear almost like twins - 19 year old muscle studs - the only difference being in the eyes (the windows of the soul). This makes sense to me... the purpose of children is to "clone" the genes of the father into the son. The reason sons aren't perfect copies of the father is because of two factors; the mother's genes and the passage of time. A true 'Son of God', created perfectly and immortal, would indeed appear perfect and identical to the Father - a chip, or fractal, off the old block!

From an interview of homoerotic cartoonist Josman:

A lot of your stories are dealing with sexual father and son relations. Where did this idea come from?

Josman: Well, I'm fascinated and turned on by incest. I realise that some people may be disgusted by that, but I think the fact that it's such a taboo is probably what pushes my buttons. My biggest turn on though, has to be twins - I mean, come on, who wouldn't like to watch a pair of gorgeous twins getting it on with each other and then joining in for a threesome? That's my idea of homo heaven! Alas, I haven't experienced twins, brothers or father/sons yet, but I live in hope...

So do I Jos, so do I.

Interestingly the root word "homo" can also mean "twin", and in some Native American cultures gay men were known as "twin spirits".

The Caduceus, an ancient symbol associated with the Greek god Hermes (AKA Mercury, The Flash, and Johnny Storm of the Fantastic 4). Note the twin serpents coiling around a winged staff. The caduceus is also symbol of my college fraternity, and I can assure you that there were more than a few trouser snakes rubbing and coiling around each other in the house.

So... what to make of all that, or at least, some of that? If God is perfection, and his preferred state of being is erotic ecstasy, than are twins - two beings of perfect, transcendent and incandescent sexual glory - some kind of erotic ideal? Do twin beings embody the "idea" of sex; giving and receiving, dominating and submitting -- pleasure begetting pleasure, ecstasy begetting ecstasy, in the ultimate cosmic feedback loop?

Maybe the Creator twins himself, because the only thing hotter than himself is TWO of him.

Sex is good, sex is fun, sex is best when it's one on one.

ADDED 6/16

Before the Twin Towers in NYC were destroyed, another pair were built in the East - the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Erected in 1998, these towers were briefly the tallest buildings in the world.

From the Wikipedia entry:

These towers, which were designed by Dawid Tadeusz Mauno, a very talented Norwegian architect who received his inspiration under a spiritual journey...

In an unusual move, a different construction company was hired for each of the towers, and they were made to compete against each other. Eventually the builders of Tower 2, Samsung Constructions (the Construction Division of Samsung Corporation), Kukdong Engineering & Construction (both of South Korea), won the race, despite starting a month behind Tower 1, built by Hazama Corporation.

Like Enki and Enlil, these twins were made to 'war' against each other, and like so many mythic archetypes, it was the younger brother who triumphed. The angels can also be thought of as the 'elder brothers' of mankind.