Men holding hands in the Street

[girlfriend44]

Saw two men walking along hand in hand earlier and I admired their bravery and thought hope nobody starts on them.
Have seen women before but not men?
Do you think they were brave. Would you be scared for them if they were your sons?
Brave men. Perhaps it's something we will see more of in the future?

@IDreamOfTheMoors

So do I. Certainly not virtue signalling twonks.

I think it's homophobic to start a thread saying you think it's odd that you saw men walking down the street holding hands
It would be an odd sight round here (for want of a better term) and probably not well received, sadly .
It's not homophobic to point that out.
Wouldn't bother me in the slightest, but it no doubt would a lot of people.
Some people seem really naive to what a lot of places are actually like re homophobia

Not unusual in this neck of the woods at all, I love seeing it! Brave? Proud more like,

It's really not that uncommon. Husband and I do or link arms.

I recall one night pre- Covid a very jovial drunk cheerfully ordering my husband to "haud her man, man"

Sorry "haud her han, man" (hold her hand)

And that lesbian couple who got beaten up by some teenagers in a bus in liberal, multicultural, open minded London a couple of years ago because they didn’t want to perform a kiss for the creeps

but everything is ok in the 21st century

when did the op say it was odd?

I think it's brave, too. I always felt a little scared of negative attention as a lesbian holding hands with other women, so I imagine it's even worse for men, who have historically been more at risk of violence for public displays of affection. I don't think the other (kind, open-minded) posters on this thread are representative of the general public. There are still a lot of bigoted pricks out there.

Normal where I live but still brave- even in the most liberal areas you can find violent homophobes.

Is this a feature of yours or a bug?
My guess would be that you go on threads about famous people and trash them too, just to feel part of a part of a group - instead of sitting alone in your mum’s basement. Bet I’m not far off.
Do you get off on being part of the “mean girls?” You do know the mean girls will turn on you too, right?

when did the op say it was odd?
I was replying to another comment by someone else, not the OP.
You've even included it in your post 😕

Normal for our times, doesn’t bother me at all.

Do you live in deep south USA? Widen your world. This is nothing unusual

It isn't homophobic. It's aware of homophobia. The two are not the same.

@ToGanymedeAndTitan sorry, wasn’t referring to yours, was referring to the post you were replying to!!

It was normal in my town in the 90’s. Para’s did it too so no one ever knew of Para or gay but no one ever messed either

As someone who grew up in Brighton, this thread is bizarre.

@SarahAndQuack that's lovely. Where I live (Also not London) what I see with couples who are in long term comfortable relationships, when they like each other, is:

Walking closely together whilst talking.
Looking at each other and laughing to themselves whilst sharing a private joke.
Talking whilst looking ahead and still walking.
Standing in a queue and unconsciously facing towards each other.
And if they're pissed off, looking over each others' shoulders or looking at their phones.

Some people hold hands even after they've been together 30 years which is lovely, but still unusual. Quite often that isn't the case though.

Handholding has connections to childhood trauma and can be infantilisating which is probably why people tend to hold hands less as they get older and more secure in their intimate relationships as they mature.

@goldfinchonthelawn I agree. I just have concerns that this thread was not created with the best of intentions.

I don't know about the 1950s but if OP lived in an exclusively Muslim community I doubt there would be hand holding by any same sex couples.

ToGanymedeAndTitan sorry, wasn’t referring to yours, was referring to the post you were replying to!!

Ah OK, no worries 😁

Depends where you live as to the reaction you’d have. As evidenced in this thread. In cities, like London, Manchester etc, it would be no big deal, and people wouldn't even notice. But in small towns and villages, very rare to see. I live in a small town and can honestly say I’ve never seen two men holding hands in the streets. And unfortunately they would be stared at, and it would draw a lot of attention. So yes OP, it would be a brave thing to do in my neck of the woods. It’s a shame, but that’s the reality I’m afraid.

I don't know about the 1950s but if OP lived in an exclusively Muslim community I doubt there would be hand holding by any same sex couples.

probably evidentialy true, but all the same must be ignored.

What the f*^%?! Where do you live???!!??!! and what year?

Yes, I see it a lot now, and also women holding hands with other women. Kind of makes me proud to be British.