Lucky

Glad you edited that!

I was able to get these two books immediately through Hoopla, which my library connected me to. I was pretty surprised as I had heard they were hard...to get.

NY Times allows me, as a subscriber, to gift articles: Opinion Guest Essay Americans Are Turning Against Gay People Jan. 19, 2026, 5:02 a.m. ET Credit...Illustration by Sam Whitney/The New York Times By Tessa E.S. Charlesworth and Eli J. Finkel Dr. Charlesworth and Dr. Finkel are research psychologists who study bias and political partisanship. The remarkable success of “Heated Rivalry,” the steamy new television series about closeted gay hockey players, has been widely taken as yet another sign of social progress — evidence that acceptance of queer love continues to grow. We wish we could share that optimism. Unfortunately, new research that one of us, Professor Charlesworth, helped conduct reveals a darker truth: The decades-long rise in the acceptance of gay people in the United States peaked around 2020 and has sharply reversed since then. The popularity of “Heated Rivalry,” it seems, is a welcome burst of enthusiasm for gay life in a new era of anti-gay prejudice. This reversal stunned us. In the two decades before 2020, visibility, recognition and legal inclusion of gays and lesbians progressed in lock step — larger and more prominent Pride parades, rainbow-lit landmarks, federal legalization of same-sex marriage. That progress translated into something remarkable: Americans’ bias against gay people declined faster than any other bias ever tracked in social surveys. Research led by Professor Charlesworth and published in 2022 detailed this decline. Drawing on 7.1 million responses from Americans collected from 2007 to 2020, the researchers tracked both explicit bias (how people answer questions like “To what extent do you prefer straight people over gay people?”) and implicit bias (more automatic responses inferred from how rapidly people associate words, such as “straight” with “good” and “gay” with “bad”). Across every U.S. state and demographic group, anti-gay bias plummeted — by roughly 75 percent on explicit measures and 65 percent on implicit ones, on average. Forecasting models suggested that, at that pace, anti-gay bias could hit zero as early as 2022. One of us, Professor Finkel, is a host of a podcast called “Love Factually,” which analyzes romantic movies in light of scientific research about relationships. Last June, in an episode about the 2005 film “Brokeback Mountain,” which depicts a love affair between two cowboys, Professor Finkel cited Professor Charlesworth’s 2022 research to make a hopeful point: “There is still a slight preference for straightness over gayness, but it is getting very close to zero.” But at that time, the Charlesworth research team was analyzing new data showing that anti-gay bias had begun to rise. The analysis of an additional 2.5 million responses from Americans collected from the beginning of 2021 through 2024 revealed that progress had not only stalled; it had reversed. In just four years, anti-gay bias rose by around 10 percent. Increases also appeared in bias toward Black, darker-skinned, older, disabled and overweight people, but not as starkly. Just as bias against gay people fell especially steeply before 2020, it has surged particularly sharply since. Perhaps most surprising is that these trends were distinctly robust among the youngest American adults — those under 25. This group increased its animus against marginalized groups in general and gay people in particular at a faster rate than older Americans did. Also surprising is that although anti-gay bias has risen faster among conservatives, it has also risen among liberals. What explains this decline in tolerance? At the moment, we don’t know. But the evidence suggests that we can rule out two common hypotheses. The first is that the anti-gay backlash is a side effect, or spillover, of the backlash against the movement for transgender rights. If that were so, you would expect increases in anti-trans bias to be meaningfully correlated with subsequent increases in anti-gay bias — which the research does not show. The second hypothesis is that the anti-gay backlash reflects the rise in moral panic language about sexual grooming, the notion that gay adults are recruiting or influencing children to become gay. But the research shows no evidence of spikes in grooming discourse (measured through Google searches) that are meaningfully correlated with subsequent spikes in anti-gay bias. If asked to speculate on the cause of the rise of anti-gay prejudice, we would point to two related factors. The first is social instability. Starting around 2020, the United States experienced a sustained disruption consisting of the Covid pandemic, economic strain and intensifying political conflict — each of which has been linked to heightened intergroup hostility and scapegoating. This would explain the overall rise in bias against marginalized groups. The second factor, which would explain the rise specifically in anti-gay bias, is anti-establishment sentiment. The sustained social disruption since 2020 has fueled resentment and a loss of confidence in institutions perceived to have failed — governments, corporations, the broader establishment. By 2020, support for gay and lesbian equality had become an establishment position. Corporate America, for example, demonstrated a concrete commitment to gay rights, with companies donating hundreds of thousands of dollars for Pride celebrations and other efforts at gay and lesbian inclusion. Gay and lesbian people, newly woven into the fabric of mainstream society, may have been collateral damage in a broader revolt against a system that felt broken, especially among younger generations grappling most intensely with uncertainty about their future. Which brings us back to the exuberance surrounding “Heated Rivalry.” The recent rise of anti-gay bias suggests that public attitudes and media representation are no longer moving in lock step. At a time when social advances can coexist with backlash, watching queer stories on television can feel comforting. But comfort on the couch is not the same thing as progress.

Sigh. No one else seems to find him attractive here. Granted, there is a lot of competition.

So I was reading the thirteen page thread on Heated Rivalry. When I got to the bottom of the page and clicked the next page number, I was always taken to...the bottom of the page! Why not the top? Even when I changed pages by clicking at the top, I was taken to the bottom of the next page. With one weird exception- When I went from page 11 to page 12, I was taken to the top of page 12. Only that one time.

I've been to Sauna Adan and didn't find it dirtier than most places. I did watch for awhile a cocaine was being sold by an employee...only watched!

I am late to the game as I just watched the series this week. Yes, I liked it very much. This evening I have read the entire 13 pages of posts here about the show, and am glad that most people liked it. @Manhattan says he did not like it, which is his prerogative and I am glad he didn't leave the board in protest of any criticism directed his way. Sadly, another poster did leave the board after his opinion was criticized. I wish he hadn't.

I once took a guided walking tour of another favela. It was quite interesting and I am glad I saw things up close. I do agree that making favela tours akin to a sightseeing bus trip does less good. All in all, I want to see favela life improve.

And he is not in Palm Springs, but West Hollywood.

I wonder what happened with @KrisParr. He last posted here on June 25th, 2025. I always enjoyed his posts. Like many others who posted on this thread, is now a "guest?"

Chris Atkins has revealed a history of surgeries. Lots of pix included! https://nypost.com/2026/01/09/entertainment/blue-lagoon-star-christopher-atkins-gives-health-update-after-undergoing-surgery/

From Britain: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/jan/04/ive-got-a-fearlessness-to-being-laid-bare-how-yungblud-became-britains-biggest-rock-star

Gosh. Maybe it's just me, but I go to Bangkok to hire Asians. Ukrainian, you say?

Wait! Didn't you tell me that she was only 18 when she had you?

I ate there dozens of times and did not get sick. It's a fast moving restaurant...or was.

So it's true. Sigh. https://nypost.com/2026/01/03/entertainment/celeb-favorite-times-square-restaurant-un-deux-trois-closes-after-48-years-its-an-institution/

Rest assured, @Charlie has a journal of his conquests!

I don't know about the other hot guys, but yes, I migrated from NYC to California.

Ill bet a lot of guys here could help you out. I know older posters who have lost interest in hiring years ago. I assume that included sex for free.

Now that I don't have a prostate, would dildos be any fun?

Law enforcement has plenty to do with current crimes, not minor past ones.

It's a religious holiday. Maybe the rules forbid mentioning it at all.

The NY Post reports that Cafe Un Deux Trois will be closing permanently. This is not the first such report, as during the pandemic they struggled mightily. This is the restaurant on W. 44th favored by theater people, where you could often see important Broadway people. Incidentally, it is where my husband and I got married. Our Central Park wedding was foiled by rain, and we were planning to lunch here anyway. We thought we were having a quiet ceremony, but once that kiss took place, the entire restaurant applauded. I will always have fond memories of eating there, especially with fellow board members. Let's hope that this is a false alarm!

May the spirit of Jesus and his Holy Mother inspire you toward love and Christianity in the New Year. Let's not leave out God, our Holy Father, without whom Jesus and Mary might not exist. Hallelujah!