Thursday, June 14, 2018

Lessons in LGBTQ History

As a reminder, we launched the public section of Capturing Rainbows’ new website 2 1/2 days ago and the feedback has been enthusiastic. Have you checked it out yet? When you do, please let me know what you think via direct message or in public comments here. To be clear, the page currently displays the accumulated content our members crafted and posted to Capturing Rainbows’ private Facebook group over the last 9 months, excluding work by several contributors who weren’t able or willing for their stories to be publicly shared at this time. A team of web developers is working on the “members only” section of the site, which should be ready to launch in the next few weeks. A more complicated endeavor, the private page will ask you to register as a member and set up an individual profile (with photo and relevant personal info). You’ll be asked to acknowledge the usual terms & conditions and attest to being 18 or older before you can access the content (as a reminder, it will allow racier content than prudish Instagram or Facebook do). On the page, you’ll see ALL the content posted by other members to the private and public sections of the site. And you’ll be able to post your own stories, photos, and videos and comment on others’ posts. When you click on another member’s profile, you’ll be able to see his/her photo, personal info, AND all posts by that member. We encourage interaction among members. In fact, even when you check out the current public section, we hope you’ll be comfortable sharing your reaction there. Our objective is to start developing the sort of community on Capturing Rainbows that has arisen here, but writ large so that every member can be both a contributor AND a commenter. We hope you embrace the site and we look forward to your participation. Today’s photo is a close-up of Maurice van der Pohl, a straight Canadian backpacker, which I took in St. Maarten in the Caribbean on my vacation there in December 1977. Some may recall that I seduced his (ostensibly straight) traveling companion on the beach there late at night while we were both inebriated, which led to a torrid 5-day affair between us. #35mm
A post shared by Mike Balaban (@bammer47) on

A note from the founders of Capturing Rainbows, which sounds like it's off to a great start!


Read about handsome Mark HERE.

2 comments:

northalabama said...

the images bring back strong memories. unfortunately, not all are happy ones.

it's surprising to me (though i'm not sure why) the strength of the pain of dozens of friends and acquaintances lost to hiv/aids decades ago that these images cause to come rushing to the forefront of my mind - i know it's me, and i'm working through it...

Just a dog dad said...

What a beautiful memory of a beautiful man - inside and out. It wasn’t AIDS.

It almost reads like a Gordon Merrick novel. I’m glad you shared this and that I read it.