What's Your Earliest "I'm Queer" memory?

[+ Oliver]

I was in 7th or 8th grade, and while walking to school in the early fall or late spring when it was warm, I would pass this house where a man would be lifting weights in his garage. He was shirtless and wore shorts. His chest was massive and slightly hairy. I walked very slowly as I passed his house.

Edited July 23, 2015 by Oliver

[+ Just Sayin]

Seeing Robert Conrad with his shirt off in "Hawaiian Eye" circa 1960. He was so fuckin' handsome!

 

~ Boomer ~

oh man! do I remember that; loved to see him with his shirt off!!!

[Tonyko]

I also remember something on PBS in the 70's that had to do with being gay, and my parents watching it, and me hiding in the hall behind them to watch and listen, again knowing it had something to do with me but also knowing I shouldn't tell anyone that. ALSO remember getting caught and sent back to bed.

(Oh YAH, and a realllly old monster movie that was a lot on Sat afternoons, I Was A Teenage Frankenstein, a way bad 50's teen fright flick but I watched EVERY time it was on just for the main teen guy. Again, couldn't articulate why, but in retrospect I was excited by looking at his hot face and body :-)

[Tonyko]

I also remember something on PBS in the 70's that had to do with being gay, and my parents watching it, and me hiding in the hall behind them to watch and listen, again knowing it had something to do with me but also knowing I shouldn't tell anyone that. ALSO remember getting caught and sent back to bed.

(Oh YAH, and a realllly old monster movie that was a lot on Sat afternoons, I Was A Teenage Frankenstein, a way bad 50's teen fright flick but I watched EVERY time it was on just for the main teen guy. Again, couldn't articulate why, but in retrospect I was excited by looking at his hot face and body

Check this out this got me thinking and I just found :-)

http://everydayheterosexism.blogspot.com/2012/08/gary-conway.html?sa=X&ved=0CDoQ9QEwEjhQahUKEwiSzPH5qfDGAhXKOz4KHRVPASk

[+ Gar1eth]

Check this out this got me thinking and I just found

http://everydayheterosexism.blogspot.com/2012/08/gary-conway.html?sa=X&ved=0CDoQ9QEwEjhQahUKEwiSzPH5qfDGAhXKOz4KHRVPASk

 

WOWEEE!!!

 

 

Gman

[BabyBoomer]

WOWEEE!!!

 

 

Gman

 

I had that issue of Playgirl. That's Gary Conway from Burke's Law & Land of the Giants.

 

~ Boomer ~

[bostonman]

Thinking of TV shows - Soap debuted when I was 13, and although I wasn't ready to officially come out at that age, I knew that Billy Crystal's gay character was a role model. His character, Jodie Dallas, was I think one of the first gay characters on a TV series who was portrayed without stereotype - just a regular guy who happened to be gay.

 

And then I remember Gregory Harrison who was a regular on Trapper John MD a few years later. The shower/bare torso shot in the intro was something I always looked forward to (about 28 seconds in on the youtube clip).

 

[+ azdr0710]

Thinking of TV shows - Soap debuted when I was 13, and although I wasn't ready to officially come out at that age, I knew that Billy Crystal's gay character was a role model. His character, Jodie Dallas, was I think one of the first gay characters on a TV series who was portrayed without stereotype - just a regular guy who happened to be gay.

 

And then I remember Gregory Harrison who was a regular on Trapper John MD a few years later. The shower/bare torso shot in the intro was something I always looked forward to (about 28 seconds in on the youtube clip).

 

 

 

that Brian Mitchell (did we ever hear from him again?) at 0:53 is not too bad, either, with that smile he flashes in this intro

[+ Gar1eth]

Thinking of TV shows - Soap debuted when I was 13, and although I wasn't ready to officially come out at that age, I knew that Billy Crystal's gay character was a role model. His character, Jodie Dallas, was I think one of the first gay characters on a TV series who was portrayed without stereotype - just a regular guy who happened to be gay.

 

 

Weren't there a few hints (other than him having a hunky football quarterback as a boyfriend, of course) that he was a faygele as Harold Gould (who was playing Jodie's Jewish hospital roommate when they were both hospitalized for some reason)?

 

I still remember asking my mother what faygele meant. She told me. In case anyone doesn't know, it's a Yiddish term for gay. It comes from the German Vogel which means bird. I guess the thought is we flitter around.

 

But forget Jodie-how could you concentrate on him when there was

 

 

Danny Dallas (Ted Wass)

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TNK9KNzP6WU/UqXSdgwBm0I/AAAAAAAAZrg/9i1hK1qRpZw/s1600/tedWas.jpg

 

And Peter Campbell (Peter Urich)

 

 

 

And for you guys (and ladies) too young to remember either of these guys, these are not good pictures-but were some of the best I could find. Both of these guys were hotter than you could imagine-esp Mr. Urich. There were a few shower scenes on Soap with him. I LOVED those. I may not have been sure I was gay at 16. But I knew I liked looking at handsome men and had for as far back as I could remember.

 

Gman

[sincitymix]

I remember watching Remington steele as a kid and thinking Pierce Brosnan was sooooooo hot.

[BabyBoomer]

Weren't Peter & Jody boyfriends on the show? Didn't Peter get killed off early in the series?

 

~ Boomer ~

[bostonman]

that Brian Mitchell (did we ever hear from him again?)

 

He's more commonly known now as Broadway star Brian Stokes Mitchell. (Ragtime, the most recent revivals of Man Of La Mancha and Kiss Me, Kate, a replacement in Kiss Of The Spider Woman opposite Vanessa Williams, etc.)

[bostonman]

Weren't Peter & Jody boyfriends on the show? Didn't Peter get killed off early in the series?

 

No, and yes. Jodie was dating Dennis, the football star. Peter was the tennis instructor that all the women were dating. ;-)

 

And yes, Peter was murdered early on.

[AdamSmith]

Not my first 'I'm queer' moment but my first jack off was age 12 after finding myself galvanized by a scene with Chad Everett shirtless in Medical Center.

 

[jakeleyman]

I am a great subject for a shrink's couch. As soon as my parents and grandmother started leaving me alone in the house (pretty early in elementary school), they were not gone five minutes till I raced to my grandmother's closet and tried on her clothes and looked in the mirror. I had no idea what was happening when my dick started getting hard in womens' clothes. As a typical 20th century closet guy I spent the rest of my childhood mastering the art of being macho and I never went back to the lingerie. Jock straps became my next clothing fetish. By the time I was in middle school, I found a way into the locker rooms after hours and would try to open every locker till I could find a jock strap to steal. The football star's mother hung clothes on an old clothes line to dry and I stole his jock once from that line. That was my prized possession.

 

You know, if kids had just accepted people for what they are, like my kids' generation does today, people would have found love and happiness and not had to find substitutes like jockstraps.

 

One other thing. When I was starting out in Chicago after college, I knew an older gay guy who worked on the Sears Catalogue. One of his jobs was to make sure "buldges" were absent from pants ads. In retrospect, maybe Sears stock would be higher if they had airbrushed them in, instead?

[AdamSmith]

Your acquaintance who airbrushed out the pants bulges reminds me of an observation I made around middle-school-age: the regional chain stores with their limited ad budgets were the most likely to leave the bulges showing in the men's underwear ads in their Sunday newspaper ad inserts.

[+ poolboy48220]

I also remember something on PBS in the 70's that had to do with being gay, and my parents watching it, and me hiding in the hall behind them to watch and listen, again knowing it had something to do with me but also knowing I shouldn't tell anyone that. ALSO remember getting caught and sent back to bed.

(Oh YAH, and a realllly old monster movie that was a lot on Sat afternoons, I Was A Teenage Frankenstein, a way bad 50's teen fright flick but I watched EVERY time it was on just for the main teen guy. Again, couldn't articulate why, but in retrospect I was excited by looking at his hot face and body

That was Gary Conway, I think. Smoking hot body with a frightening mangled Frankenstein face.

[Tonyko]

AND of course THIS super hot guy!! My Dad's FAVE western that I never heard of that he was THRILLED to find in re-runs and we'd watch together and he was ALSO thrilled that his little boy was ALSO into it. (for VERY diff reasons of course . I remember just waiting impatiently for scenes like this which wasn't every show and trying not to show my excitement when he DID appear like this because, again, something told me keep to yourself. *took me a while to figure out he was also the Dad on the Little House show.

http://s8.postimg.org/zbvitd3xh/image.jpg

[+ Gar1eth]

AND of course THIS super hot guy!! My Dad's FAVE western that I never heard of that he was THRILLED to find in re-runs and we'd watch together and he was ALSO thrilled that his little boy was ALSO into it. (for VERY diff reasons of course . I remember just waiting impatiently for scenes like this which wasn't every show and trying not to show my excitement when he DID appear like this because, again, something told me keep to yourself. *took me a while to figure out he was also the Dad on the Little House show.

http://s8.postimg.org/zbvitd3xh/image.jpg

 

 

Wow, you are indeed a youngster to have never heard of Bonanza. Now I'm feeling not just old but really, really old!! But yes, Little Joe was the eye candy-along with Candy there in the background on that show. But another show which you will not have heard of either The Big Valley had the even better eye candy of Lee Majors

 

http://z5.ifrm.com/9060/140/0/p1028735/lee_majors_shirtless_the_big_valley_color_4x6_bv227_094df.jpg

 

 

http://www.oocities.org/thorn_deathbreeze/CLOSET_STARS_2.JPG

 

Gman

[+ Gar1eth]

I used to wait for shirtless scenes of this guy. Can anyone name actor and the show?

 

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51tkxb4LzcL._SY400_.jpg

 

Gman

[Tonyko]

I used to wait for shirtless scenes of this guy. Can anyone name actor and the show?

 

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51tkxb4LzcL._SY400_.jpg

 

Gman

Yes, again, reruns with my Dad lol! Mission Impossible. Peter Lupus (sic) And btw I have heard of Bonanza and that other Western with Barbara Stanwyck NOW of course lol, but as a kid. "no" had no idea what they were.

[Tonyko]

For MY generation what made my pre-pubecent insides go gaga was The Hardy Boys Mysteries, OMG I used to DREAM about Parker lol! I remember SCREAMING at my big brother to shutup when it was on and he was like whats the BFD it's just a stupid show etc ! But, like most memories their best left in your mind:rolleyes:

http://s3.postimg.org/y0an3mrnm/image.jpg

[BasketBaller]

For me it was those scenes from Lil Abner, which I saw when I was about 5. I didn't remotely understand my reaction but I knew I REALLY liked those shirtless body builders! Later, when I took swimming lessons I realized I liked seeing nakedguys in the locker room. Once I heard what a homosexual was, I remember thinking, oh shit.

Edited May 2, 2017 by BasketBaller

[bostonman]

For me it was those scenes from Lil Abner, which I saw when I was about 5. I didn't remotely understand my reaction but I knew I REALLY liked those shirtless body builders!

 

When I was just out of college, I was hired to help with a summer teen production of Lil' Abner. It wasn't that great a production by any means, but the highlight for me was that the director (who was the football coach at the high school - and presumably better at football than directing theatre) got some of his football players to play the musclemen. I wasn't out to the adults in this particular company (and it would have been inappropriate to make any comments to the kids of course) so I just kept my lust to myself. But oh, I enjoyed that scene...

[+ Gar1eth]

For me it was those scenes from Lil Abner, which I saw when I was about 5. I didn't remotely understand my reaction but I knew I REALLY liked those shirtless body builders! Later, when I took swimming lessons I realized I liked seeing nakedguys in the locker room. Once I heard what a homosexual was, I remember thinking, oh shit, That's me.

I posted a picture from Li'l Abner earlier in this thread. I liked it too. But here it is again in case you missed it.

 

 

 

 

Gman