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?

Normal, unremarkable and embarrassing that you’ve even remarked upon it

@Livelovebehappy have you read the posts about people being killed or beaten up in London and Edinburgh?

@FlorettaB

I agree, that was a poor choice of words.

Quite a few years ago now, a trans woman was walking down the street in the evening in the city nearest where I live. She either felt safe or had no other option.

A car pulled over and the occupants beckoned to her. She went over to their car and leaned down to hear them better — they shot and murdered her, because she was a known trans woman. She was not a prostitute, and was just walking to get from point A to point B. I don’t think the murderers were ever caught.

It was a tragic, terrible thing and it started a movement in that city to raise awareness about the safety of that community. Even though things are a little better, it’s still a very dangerous world out there for LGBTQ people.

It’s 2022 for Christ sake, I wouldn’t even notice. Why are they brave? Millions of couples hold hands. This is not 1958.

I never suggested that holding hands wasn't the physical representation of safety.

What I don't believe for one moment is your claim that Handholding has connections to childhood trauma. I'd still like to see where on earth you get that idea?

You responded to my question about whether age plays a role in how society treats handholding. I speculated that perhaps it did. You think it doesn't - but you're only now saying you were only referring to a very narrow definition of 'romance'. That's called special pleading. Come on.

Why are they brave?
Because they don't know if they're going to get shouted at, attacked, tutted and scowled at etc.
Someone has linked homophobic attacks in the news upthread.
Something I never have to think about holding hands with DH.
Just because you wouldn't notice or care, doesn't mean that everyone is like that, sadly.

@Louise0701 theyre brave because same sex couples have been killed or beaten up for holding hands or being demonstrative in public in places like London, Edinburgh etc

Another straight person writes 🙄

Next perhaps you can tell us why racism isn’t a thing any more 🙄

Because, as the links to homophobic attacks show, as awful as it is, it's a fact that in some places or at some times of day, openly identifying as a gay person puts you at increased risk of assault or worse

Totally normal. My brother and his partner show affection in public the same as any couple and why shouldn’t they? Btw talking holding hands etc. don’t need to see anyone snogging or groping no matter gay or straight!

sigh
Despite your brother and his partner being lucky enough to feel safe enough to show affection in public, please understand that for some people, in some places and at some times of the day, doing the same would massively increase their risk of assault. It's awful but true!

For example in central London - no one would really bat an eyelid. But I can’t say that for London as a whole. I would think there would be a risk of verbal/physical abuse. It would be naive to think otherwise.

Another "I don't see colour" post 🙄

Surely not, i have seen this plenty of times

Ah, c'mon, really?

There’s one make couple at our school gates and have served a number of guys I knew to be gay but sadly have never seen a male or female couple walking hand in hand here yet so all of you that are bemused around here the ops post makes total sense to me

Would you notice when they're beaten up, though?

I’ve seen plenty of black people. Therefore there is no racism🙄

Well no you haven't. Homophobia is still alive and well in 2022 despite gay marriage being legal and more widespread acceptance of same-sex relationships. It's really naive to say "oh it's so normal it's not worth commenting on". It IS normal, but it is also absolutely a risk. Very sad but true.

Even in gay friendly city Manchester there are still plenty of homophobic attacks.

Home Office data shows Greater Manchester Police (GMP) recorded 1,461 homophobic and biphobic hate crimes in the year to March 2021.

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/man-attacked-in-homophobic-assault-23736970.amp

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/there-was-absolute-hatred-towards-24750027.amp

One of my teenage sons is gay and I worry terribly for him, I hope for his sake people will be accepting but that doesn’t change the fact that people are still homophobic even in 2022.

@SarahAndQuack yes really. Are you naive enough to think that homophobia is a thing of the past??

If you'd taken a couple of minutes to read the thread, you'd realise that, no, I don't think that.

But I do think it's utter bullshit to say that central London is miraculous immune.

You are really asking this? 🤦🏼‍♀️

@SarahAndQuack yes, really!

We live here and we call it Hackers. Literally nobody gives a shit if you don’t like it.

Nobody is saying homophobes aren’t everywhere. The same way there are racists everywhere and the swankiest area might have a rapist round the corner. However, Hackers is one of the most culturally, ethnically and economically diverse areas in one of the most culturally, ethnically and economically diverse cities on the planet. LGBT+ culture is a major part of that and men holding hands would not be a remarkable sight. The fact that seems to upset you is very odd.