Stories from a man who fails to meet media expectations of what it means to be gay:
white, frivolous, over sexed yet sexless, shrill, single, stylish, a clown, unimportant, et al.

<prior or next>

26 lies about 26 men.
G is for George

Godfrey hates his name. More so, he hates that he is not merely Godfrey, but Godfrey the forth. He hates the sound of it. He hates how easily it lends itself to mocking and ridicule. He hates that his younger brother Harold got off relatively easy. He hates that none of the previous Godfreys had managed to kill the name off.

Godfrey hates his name so much that he stopped being Godfrey in high school and now goes by the name George. Friends, clients, acquaintances all know him as George. Jovial George. Handsome George. Successful up and coming professional landscaper George. George is a simple name, an honest name, a strong name, a trustworthy name, while Godfrey is the name of a silly queen. George is not a silly man.

The only people who know that George is also Godfrey are his people, but he refuses them the privilege of his rejected name, and when his parents or an aunt or uncle forget, intentionally or not, they are met with a glare and a scowl. His worst look though, is reserved for his lover Lam. On the occasions Lam feels the need to use the word Godfrey, the cold annoyance that radiates from George could freeze over a large lake on the hottest days of summer. Unfortunately for George, Tran likes cold. It makes him laugh.

Besides hating his given name, at times George also hates that his parents get along so well with Lam. They're Baptists; they weren�t supposed to treat his male, homosexual, Vietnamese, Catholic lover as a treasured friend and member of the family. They weren�t supposed to be pushing for the two of them to adopt children. They certainly weren�t supposed to be so obvious in their preference of Lam over their daughter-in-law Lisa, although in their defense, given his brother�s taste in women, even George admits that would be difficult to do.

In truth, George likes that his parents have always dealt with his boyfriends with kindness and consider Lam family, although he could have done without the part that being family included sharing his shameful and horrifically named past.

Giving Lam that much ammunition in their relationship made him sometimes long for a family that would have treated his being gay as a barely tolerated misfortune, and his having a noncaucasion lover as something never to be acknowledged or mentioned.

His longing for less loving parents usually occur late at night when he and Lam are lying in bed next to each other talking and Lam will mention that maybe his parents are right about them adopting. After all, why shouldn�t there be a little Godfrey the fifth?

Lam will chuckle his sweet laugh that makes it difficult for George to stay angry with him, and behind his obligatory scowl that requires Lam to kiss him repeatedly to make him stop being such a sourpuss, is the thought that maybe, just maybe, they should stop joking about kids and think about it for real.

It would be nice, and he knows that they would be good parents. After dealing with all of Lam�s nieces and nephews he has no doubts about that, and with his business going so well, and Lam finally out of residency, they could certainly afford kids now.

After these mock fights, when Lam has turned over on his side and has fallen asleep, and before he falls asleep himself, George has taken to thinking that does want to be a father, to have a daughter or son. Not Godfrey the fifth though, god no, not Godfrey, although George Junior has a certain ring to it.

<prior or next>

� 2000-2007