Recently articles have emerged that concern me. They talk about “minority stress” and an epidemic of loneliness among gay men, despite recent gains in equality and acceptance in pop culture and society at large.
But worst of all, these articles suggest that we cope with our stress in isolation. The trouble — as described in these articles — consists of our pressures. Our pressure to overcome traumatic events, our pressure to keep our trauma to ourselves, our pressure to cope with stressors that, sometimes biologically, our nervous systems are not prepared to handle.
That bleak picture, though thoroughly researched, is incomplete. I’ve been researching peace for for nine years as part of my documentary film A Chance for Peace, and one of the main lessons I’ve learned is that we can’t know something without first knowing its opposite.
So I’m here to put fear aside for a minute and majorly stress an epidemic of love among gay men — because, although “love” and “gay” may be an unpopular pairing at present, it’s a message worth spreading.
