LGBTAI+ 51: Lay That Hammer Down!

[noparlpf]

Song?

Iron Maiden, from the album Powerslave.
I've also been told that I appear "perma-stoned" so I guess I'm an Ace High.

Hey, I have a question for people. Do you differentiate between romance and friendship?

For me, it seems like romance is just a really intense friendship. I like having friends around, I actively seek out the company of people I am romantically interested in. I feel comfortable enough to wear casual clothes and hug friends, I feel comfortable enough with romantic partners to be naked or have sex. All of these things are things I would do with a friend with a sufficiently strong bond of trust and affection, at which point I usually call it romantic interest. It feels qualitatively different, but it's a difference of quality rather than nature: Friendship feels good, romance feels better.

Edit: Also posting this in the Questions Thread.

Yeah, this came up on AVEN at some point. They feel different to me but I don't know how to explain it. Romantic attraction is like an added thing on top of friendship, but it's a different added thing, not just more friendship. I also have a highly limited sample to work from here, which might not be helping much.

So, uh, hi there. Pansexual cis male here. I've been lurking this thread here for a while, intending on hopping in on the conversation at some point, but it seems something has come up that will necessitate my involvement now. Namely, I am planning on leaving my (abusive) home for Fort Wayne, Indiana, where me and my girlfriend have been able to make arrangements. The point of this is, does anyone have anything that may help an LGBT youth who may very well be homeless if things go south? Any possible resources would be greatly appreciated.

Hey there. I'm way up in New York so I can't offer any help, but good luck.

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Edit: Oh yeah, I was gonna share some semi-relevant stuff from my weekend.

So on Friday I went to an orthopedist. I've had chronic tendonitis in my left flexor carpi ulnaris for years, and my mum decided I needed to see somebody again. Turns out I've had a slowly-growing cyst in my triquetrum. Guess it was too small to show up last time I saw somebody like five years ago? Anyway, fun stuff. Check it out, there's a hole in my triquetrum.

Spoiler: x-ray

Show

Anyway, the relevant part of the visit was in filling out the intake forms for the new doctor's office. I got down to sexual history and it asked whether I were attracted to men, women, or both. I wrote in another box "none" and checked that off. Last time I did one of these I had to select "lesbian" from their drop-down menu (computerised intake forms) because it wasn't believable and I figured they'd have to ask about it. And another time I got one with a Kinsey scale on it. I had to write in √(-1) because I don't fall on the Kinsey scale (and they didn't have an X option anyway).

Then I met up with some friends up in Massachusetts. At a frozen yogurt place after dinner, there was a flyer saying "parties at [store name]" with "parties" in a fancy cursive font. I had the following exchange with a female friend.
Friend: "Oh, parties. I thought that said panties."
Me: "Huh, I thought it said pastries."
Friend: "Well, I guess that shows where our minds are."