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I found GA off a link from a blog/porn site called The Gay Surf Report. That was back in April of 2009, and I lurked in the shadows for a while reading the forums and some stories until I finally decided to create an account in August of 2009. It's been a hell of a ride ever since!

I think that both sides in this thread are coming from fundamentally different experiences and current situations, and its to the point where they will probably never agree or convince each other. Yang has a point. Coming out in Hollywood is not brave when you know exactly how the reaction is going to play out. As he mentioned, she knew full well that she was going to get flooded with compliments from anywhere and everywhere, and her career most likely wouldn't suffer. I totally agree with Yang that it definitely was not as courageous as the media is hyping it up to be. Now, I disagree that all well-publicized coming outs are a play in self-indulgence. What Michael Sams did took a huge set of balls. He was a football player for a big time DI program, and we all know how football culture treats homosexuality. He was a legit prospect in the NFL draft, and he knew that coming out could seriously effect his draft status and the way he could be treated by future teammates in the pros. Yet, he did it anyway, at massive personal risk to himself both professionally and socially. Unlike Page, he ventured into the unknown with his decision, and I have massive respect for that. Doing something when you already know the outcome is by no definition courageous (Page). Doing something when the outcome is unknown and has a strong possibility to backfire, but you did it for the betterment of yourself and others, that is courageous. Seriously, I wish there had been a Michael Sams around when I was in high school and a Grade A closet case football player. I honestly believed I was the only homo football player to have ever existed, and being what I thought was the only one in the group made me angry and depressed. It actually started to make me resent a sport I loved playing and watching. Having a Michael Sams around when I was playing wouldn't have in any way helped me to come out, but I could of at least taken comfort in the fact that I knew I wasn't the only one. Ellen Page, good for you, you aren't in the closet anymore. But you didn't make much of an impact because gays in Hollywood are a dime-a-dozen. Michael Sams, you have balls of steel and what you did took true courage. You are a first, a trailblazer, and you did it all at great personal risk to yourself. You have inspired me, and most likely thousands of other athletes who feel alone and the need to be deeply closeted because of the sports culture. You are only one man, but you have opened the door to what I hope will be a shifting culture in sports, especially football.

And you can thank Americans and their medical innovations for you're good healthcare.

Why? Isn't that exactly what we are trying to do here? To me 'grow' is a pretty fitting word to use.

I may have to make a trip out you're way when the snow is melted.

But just think when spring rolls around....If UM is anything like my campus, its eye candy galore, x10,000 because of how big that school is. To me it would be worth it, haha.

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But doesn't getting to look at throngs of very hot UM boys make it worth while?

So I have a question for the more experienced GA authors, especially the Promising and Hosted ones (or whatever they call you guys now ). What are some good ways to grow you're readership for stories? Granted I am brand new and only have one chapter posted so far, but I want to try and do this right and get my work as far spread as possible. I've gotten a fair amount of views on my story so far, and a pretty good number of reviews, but I'm wondering how you guys effectively market, so to speak, you're works. Any advice would be appreciated for this newbie.

It snowed another couple of inches last night, and snow removal is starting to become a serious issue. Because of all the snow we've had so far this year, and the fact that this is a very crowded, built-up urban area, they have no place left to put it. So, along almost every major road there are view-blocking snowbanks throughout, and they have actually stopped plowing many residential streets because they are running out of resources and there is no place to put them.

This is why I hate "judging sports". Its so easy to corrupt and its so subjective to personal taste that, to me, it loses a lot of its legitimacy. Not that I ever considered figure skating much of a sport anyway...but thats for a different thread I think.

You don't have to be a good singer, just a marketable one. Clean cut, good looking white boys have perfect public marketability, even if they are no-talent ass clowns. *cough* Bieber *cough*

You had me until the last part. This is absolutely not true at all. Hollywood is dominated by super-liberals where LGBT-whatever is celebrated. Yes, it could potentially be career damaging, but its nowhere near as dangerous as it is in the sports world. In the sports world, many big-timers are openly homophobic, and locker room culture by its very nature is incredibly homophobic. Despite the support Michael Sams has gotten, there are far more players who aren't going to want him in their locker room, but just haven't said so publicly. The same certainly does not apply to Hollywood. So no, coming out as an actress in up-the-ass liberal Hollywood is nowhere near as brave as coming out before you are even drafted into one of the most homophobic sports leagues in the world (the NFL).

Haha, this was pretty freakin' funny. I disagree with you to an extent, but this was hilarious.

In The Air Tonight (Live), by Phil Collins. Epic song.

Give him a few more years to come into himself, and he'll be a bangin' hottie.

I didn't even know they had a daily post limit, let alone that people actually hit it.

If there was ever a more beautiful sounding type of music, I have yet to hear it. I could get lost in their voices for hours. I grew up in a Catholic household, so I was introduced to this from an early age, and even then I had an appreciation for it. If you are ever feeling stressed out or angry, just listen. It'll throw away any of those feelings.

The Total War series. I could play Rome, Medieval II, and Empire for hours and hours and hours.

Then I guess I have no life either. I have the Tumblr app on my phone, and everyday after I get back from the gym I spend the next half hour scrolling through my Tumblr feed and reblogging until I get to where I left off the day before. Its addicting!

I don't know. If you are trying to sell lube, its gotta be sexy, not sentimental. Sentimental is all feel-good and mushy, but it doesn't make my dick go hard. And don't I want to associate a sex product with that?

Hmmm, its a little too sentimental for me considering its an ad for lube specifically made for gay butt sex. But then again, as Bob Dylan said, the times they are a changin'.

I'd gladly take him too. Half White/half Asian guys are hot.

The winter olympics has by far the better events, but the summer games have by far the hottest athletes. I'd take the entire USA Gymnastics team any day of the week. And why is Sidney Crybaby Crosby on the list? He should be banned from anything in America after what he did in Vancouver in 2010.

This is a great song, and a hauntingly good rendition in psuedo-Gregorian style.