REAL Men wear Pink shirts and hold hands

recently, the paper and the office has been buzzing with all things related to homosexuality because of a letter we had published that calls for more compassion for homosexuals, that in turn had generated a series of angry and disappointed readers who had written in.

for the next issue, our editor has requested for a photo of two men holding hands. specifically, the shot will focus only on the hands.

sounds like a small and easy task right?

well, it IS.

except that men can be so anal it never ceases to amaze me.

and they all share the same response - "eeee.... no, don't want. men don't hold hands" says Macho-shit Racer and all other men in the office. gimme a break.

i told Hainan Boy that i don't believe i cannot find a man who doesn't mind holding another guy's hands for just this one shot. i wanted to look for Richie but he had gone out for delivery. (Richie turns out to be the ONLY ONE in this office who is ok with it.)

so off we troop downstairs to FLS. two of our co-workers are chatting in their room. perfect. one is young and the other is not old. they are both open-minded people.

or so i thought.

same reactions, i get.

"anyway, holding hands doesn't mean you are a homosexual," the not old guy says.

"yes, so why won't you?" i retort.

they give me many excuses that i don't understand and i reject. no one's asking them to kiss each other for goodness sake!

on the way back to our office, i tell Hainan Boy, "this is like saying men cannot wear pink shirts!"

"YEAH! MEN DON'T WEAR PINK SHIRTS!" he says.

kill me.

for the record, The Apostle wears pink. i know he's got at least two shirts that have pink in them - one's a white and pink striped shirt and the other's a multi-coloured (with lots of pink in it) chequered one. and he is most definitely NOT GAY.

Snow White's Marc wears pink too. and he is definitely not gay too.

in fact, the two of them are very attractive, extremely handsome, very straight, young men who don't make needless macho displays of themselves. simply because they have no need to do that.

they are confident of their sexuality. as seen by their not being bothered to prove anything about it.

so i come back to the office, disturbed and i pick up the phone to call Mr C. i want to sound him out. if he says that it is natural for men to be this averse to holding hands, then i shall rethink my position. after all, i am no man.

Mr C sounds puzzled at first, "But men don't hold hands!" he says.

"i know!" i almost scream. i explain the situation and context of the photograph to him.

"oh... then no problem lah! why not! you can use my hand if you want!" he offers.

i nail him to his offer. it is not a problem. you are only holding hands for a photo to be taken. how can anyone seriously be bothered by that?

(i suspect they fear they may actually be turned on...)

i am satisfied with his response. and damn proud of him!

now, THAT'S a REAL MAN! i'm buying him a pink shirt to reward him.