Q Here’s a hypothetical for you: You’ve been corresponding with a handsome young man who lives in Paris. You know him through a friend in France, and your friend has vetted him. He’s offered to pay more than half of your airfare so that you can visit him in Paris. You’ve spoken to him on the phone, and hearing him speak to you in French makes your knees weak.
PS: I’m attaching his photo so you can see why I’m considering this. I trust you will not publish it.
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I lie to my parents. I tell them a friend—someone they know, someone who’ll lie for me—lent me the money and I’m going to go spend a few days in France with my friend (the same one who vetted this boy) before I land a job.
I wouldn’t be going at all if a friend hadn’t vetted this guy. And I wouldn’t go if I didn’t have somewhere to stay besides this boy’s place. And I would treat our first meeting like any first meeting with a stranger I’d met online: it would be in a public place, I’d let someone know where I was going and who I was with, and it wouldn’t be an open-ended date, i.e., I’d see him for lunch and have ironclad plans to hang out with other friends later that same afternoon.
Love the column. —Pro Equality and Chicks Ejaculating
But that doesn’t answer your question: Why would I support a candidate who views my love for my partner as somehow inferior to his love for his wife? Because I’m not an idiot. Because I’m not a single-issue voter and Obama was better on other issues—on gay issues and every other issue—than his Republican opponent. Because politics is about the art of the possible and, I’m sorry, Dennis Kucinich just wasn’t possible.
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