{"id":476,"date":"2019-04-11T09:00:48","date_gmt":"2019-04-11T09:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/?p=476"},"modified":"2021-09-12T00:22:03","modified_gmt":"2021-09-12T00:22:03","slug":"coming-out-in-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/?p=476","title":{"rendered":"Coming out in practice <h3>Considering Shannon Novak\u2019s <em>Sub Rosa<\/em><\/h3>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In 1995 I lost my virginity in the New Plymouth Public Library toilets whilst waiting for my shift to start at PAK\u2019nSAVE. It was an unplanned event that unfolded like a slow dance. We never said a word to each other; it was all eye contact. It was during a time I had no other means of meeting men in New Plymouth. I somehow felt and knew that the library was where I was supposed to be, where it was supposed to happen, behind closed doors, in a safe place away from home and the outside world.<br>\u2014Shannon Novak<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before actually going, I was afraid to go. The prospect of spending time in an avowedly gay space tends to produce in me an acute anxiety. I fear being judged: on the basis of my looks, my age, my ability to dance. At the same time, there\u2019s a thrill. I am one of the lucky ones; I don\u2019t spend my days hiding my homosexuality as it is clear some others do. Yet to have homosexuality as the norm is \u2013 to state the obvious \u2013 not the norm. Here at the dance party, I\u2019m typical. Indeed, I might even be a little strait-laced. To my left is a young man in a jockstrap. To my right an older man in some sort of leather harness. I only have my shirt off. \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">*<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pantograph-punch.com\/post\/shannon-novaks-sub-rosa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Continue reading<\/a> on The Pantograph Punch, where this essay is titled \u2018Sex in the Gallery: Shannon Novak\u2019s <em>Sub Rosa<\/em>\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1995 I lost my virginity in the New Plymouth Public Library toilets whilst waiting for my shift to start at PAK\u2019nSAVE. It was an unplanned event that unfolded like a slow dance. We never said a word to each other; it was all eye contact. It was during a time I had no other [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[195,143],"class_list":["post-476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-writing","tag-lgbtqia","tag-shannon-novak"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=476"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1545,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476\/revisions\/1545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}