Gay in public

I dont know , am i the only person who has no problem with being gay in public? i dont mean being dressend up in pink and having a gay pride flag as a cape , but simple things like walking close to your partner , holding hands when the mood is right and when your parting ways , a simple little peck on the cheek , , would you do this ? more importantly would your partner let you do this?

Not the only person! Myself and himself are as much a couple in public as in private... ...and besides being once advised by a filthy dirty scobey in Wilton one day that "this is not a gay shopping centre!", nobody bats an eyelid. Although a woman did follow us up an escalator one day in Debenhams to tell us it was lovely to see us so happy together... ...swings and roundabouts

I can honestly say that it's been my experience that nobody cares anymore.

i'd love that , if only more people were like ye , or even that women , i want to be like ye , but to be honest i know my boyfriend would be so uncomfortable it wouldn't be fair. and i would never do that to him.
We held hands once before in public but this bloke started stairing at us , so that ended that

I'd hold hands in public and kiss....its no ones business if you do....what do straight people get to fall in love and show affection while we have to sneak around?.....i bloody hell don't think so!

If I feel like it I will. Or more like if "we" felt like it I woud. I have done so in the past (held hands, kissed, gone on very obvious dates). Like using the descriptive label "straight-acting", I don't act. I'm me, if I feel like holding a persons hand, etc I would.
People may take notice but very, very few actually give a sh1t and fewer have the courage to act.

see i think the commin thought here is , do ppl actually care?! today i saw a couple(straight) making out in the middle of the street in front of hmv , and no one batted an eye lid , but i know full well if a gay couple were carring on the way they were , there would be up rore! but is it right to make others uncomfortale , fair enough if we love each other , same sex or not , some ppl feel very unfomfortable around obvious couples , kissing and so on , in public.

It happened to me when I was in a chipper in Tralee last week. It was fairly early on a Sat evening & there was a rather drunk lesbian couple in there. Next thing they were mawling the faces off each other. A group of lads in the corner didn't know where to put themselves & I nearly dropped my kebab in shock.

I'm one of those people that gets uncomfortable seeing the straights eating each other in public though.

see there is my point in black and white , some ppl just get so uncomfortable , no matter what sexuality the ppl are , but that really is no excuse for the simple things like just being able to hold hands

Ahh tis all to do with your own personal preferences. I know plenty of straight couples who wouldnt be seen dead 'making out' in public and who shy away from obvious public displays of affection. And for no other reason than they prefer not doing it in front of complete strangers.

Of course gay couples have the added thing of maybe not wanting to cause a scene and attract stares and unwanted attention. Whether they would actually get unwanted attention is another thing. But i do think they (we, us etc lol) would get more stares...and that can make anyone uncomfortable.

With a bit of drink on me i become much more open and more willing to be 'gay' in public....but i dont think for the life of me i'd do it when sober. Nothing to do with being ashamed, just not really my thing.

see another excelet point! the comofrtable fact dose exsist for the "straights" of the world as well.
but it is i do think the added factor of making the "scene"!!!!

I'm not a fan of affection in general so public displays of it are off limits in my book. I'm not afraid to be with someone I'm seeing in public but seeing couples hug or kiss sweetly makes me gag so it's not something that would ever cross my mind to do.

i have no problem with discrete PDAs in public but i dont appreciate ayone mauling each other in public, gay or straight!

Nicely put, I love that phrase "mauling"!!!

And you're right, I don't think anyone likes to see heavy petting or tongues when they're popping into Tesco's for a weekly shop.

Whan I say kiss i don't mean the whole sticking tongues down each others throats....i mean an affectionate peck on the cheek or lips....i mean i kissed a friend on the lips inside redz and no one gave us a second glance....most ppl don't mind there are just some who find it uncomfortable with it but maybe thats the way they were raised....you can't change that....

Hahaha love that phrasing Bootyzilla! I completely shy away from PDA's I think solely because of a bad experience when I was 17. Basically I was sitting on a beach in Dublin with my girlfriend (it was December and there was no one around) and had my arm around her, nothing more. Then a middle aged, middle class man and woman walked by glaring and the woman started saying it was disgusting etc. I was shocked - we weren't even doing anything!! Then on the way home we held hands and got more verbal abuse from a gang of girls so since then I have a mental block on any PDA's much to my own misery

Bah, don't let that stop ya! They were probably into fisting behind closed doors so nuts to them

I've never had an issue with showing my boyfriend affection in public. I'm of course not going to maul him in the street, but I see absolutely nothing wrong with holding hands with him, giving him a cuddle when he's being cute, and giving him a quick fondie (Waterfordian for a small kiss, NOT a quick fondle) when we part ways. I don't think we've ever had trouble.

At the same time, when we're somewhere that we both deem that PDA's would be just drawing unnessesary attention towards us from knacks and such, we'll automatically tone down. Safety first and all that

if you notice the common tread here is every one focusing on the kissing , but i statred with the whole affection point of view , more ways of showing that besides "Making out"

see this point about "safty first" is kinda annoying , cork isn't a rural village or 1920 . Though i agree it's a valid point , it is something which is used as an excuse more often than not

Kind of annoying? Not really just its common sense. Would you walk down Cathedral Road, Shandon Street, North Main Street etc holding your boyfriends hand. Well you could but I wouldnt reccommend. 'Safety first' is a valid point. I walk by myself and they'll f**king shout at me for Gods sake. Homophobia is still alive and well unfortunately