By now many of you no doubt have seen Brokeback Mountain. It started playing at the Regal Cinemas in Newington on Friday the 6th, and I saw it the next afternoon. What an amazing story. How times have changed, I thought to myself. And yet have they really?
In my own case, I always knew I was gay and was not interested in women—other than as friends. Consequently I never married, but so many of my gay brothers have, subsequently involving wives and children in the wrenching heartache of their own coming-out processes. I was spared this.
However, the more I thought about the story of Ennis and Jack, the more I began to question my own relational choices. Am I any more insulated for never having married? I must truthfully answer no. I saw so much of myself in Ennis. There was a very special man in my past—I call him The Man Who Got Away—and I have spent years living the regret of what might have been had I been ready for his love. But timing was not on my side in that case.
I’ll be curious to hear your own musings in reaction to Brokeback Mountain’s tender yet tragic story. All I know is that I have been deeply moved.
Back to reality. The board is looking for volunteers! If you have been looking for a way to become more involved in SGM, we have some great opportunities. For one, we need a Cruise Committee chairman. Although the cruise is not scheduled until July 23, you’ll be surprised at just how fast July rolls around. Whether you volunteer to chair the committee or simply to be a member of it, your help is greatly appreciated. In a similar vein, the fall dinner/dance will need its own committee, although that is a bit further off . . . for now. And if anyone is interested in organizing a Pride presence at either Portland or Boston Pride, let one of us know and we’ll support you all the way.
A less structured way to become more involved is simply to organize an outing. Is rollerskating your thing? If so, get a group of SGM’ers together and head to Roller Skate Newington. If you prefer bowling, then get a group to do that activity. The sky’s the limit, and the best way to reach the greatest number of your fellow SGM’ers is to send an e-mail to .
<>Which brings me to my last item. SGM currently has three domain names. First there was seacoastgaymen.org. Then a prior board registered sgmnh.org in response to seacoastgaymen.org being an increasing target of spam. But since Seacoast Gay Men’s corporate identity is SGM Inc., sgminc.org was registered and is preferred. Consequently, please update your address books and change all references from sgmnh.org to sgminc.org. We’ll have the former through mid-December, but you may as well wean yourselves away from using it now.To review, you can access our Web site by either http://seacoastgaymen.org or http://sgminc.org, but please use sgminc.org for all e-mail addresses, as in .
The February board meeting will be the third Monday of February, the 20th. As always, all are invited to attend.
Best wishes,
Carl