13/09/2022
The gay pagan blog of the Cult of Antinous, an Ancient Roman religion which deified the lover of Emporer Hadrian, notes that September 3rd was observed as World Beard Day. One weblog on the subject suggests that as early as the ninth century, some tribes of Norsepeople reserved a day to celebrate the beard. But is has been subject to fluctuating fashions from antiquity. Greek men often sported beards during the hey day of their civilization, which frequently celebrated homoerotic relationships between older men and younger teenage guys. Can you just imagine the gagging at the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail if, as Gore Vidal once cheekily suggested, we resurrect the sexual mores of the Greco-Roman world? In the Roman World, beards went in and out of fashion, with the aforementioned Hadrian as a man who sported a neatly trimmed beard. Today, many tribes of gay, bi and pansexual men sport beards as a symbol of masculinity, not a toxic straight masculinity, but a timeless, sensitive and emotionally intelligent queer masculinity. Take Pride, guys, in your beards!