As boys, we fought to keep this flame from being extinguished by the world around us.

"Be the best. Quit crying. Don't overthink it. Take it like a man. You need to stand up for yourself. Leave the weak behind. Try harder next time. Don't apologize; he'll get over it."

For some of us, the flame was snuffed out by abuse, by relentless bullying, or by physical pressure. For others, it gradually dimmed through societal expectations.

For the gay men among us, we fought back all the harder and built a wall of defiance around the flame. And in creating a unique sense of self, the flame survived into adulthood where it still fuels our inner and outer lives.

 
Suggested Reading: "Out of the Shadows: Reimagining Gay Men's Lives" by Walt Odets

Igor Mattio, Intertwined

There are more pictures from this series on the photographer's website here.

Luisl4nd, 'Breakfast 👅💦'

Naruki Kukita, Łukasz Leja posing with his painting 'gym bros: dickptych'

A nineteenth-century painting by the Swiss-French painter Marc Gabriel Charles Gleyre depicting a scene from Daphnis and Chloe

Kees Scherer (Dutch 1920 - 1993) Buck Buck, 1954

Andreas Andersen, 'Interior with Hendrik Andersen and John Briggs Potter in Florence' (1894)

Norwegian-born American artist Andreas Andersen's 1894 painting 'Interior with Hendrik Andersen and John Briggs Potter in Florence' depicts his brother, sculptor Hendrik Andersen (left), aged 22, with American painter John Briggs Potter (right), aged 29. The three travelled and studied in Europe. Andreas Andersen, 25, at the time of the painting, portrayed his brother and Potter as they woke up in the bohemian interior of the Florentine house in Via San Zanobi near Piazza Indipendenza where the three companions had taken up residence. The work has been described as possibly the first publicly displayed painting of an unambiguously homosexual couple. Andreas Andersen, who was by all accounts, heterosexual, portrayed his brother and Potter in a (for the time) rather sensitive manner. Hendrik Andersen would meet author Henry James in 1899, and the two would have a long relationship. John Briggs Potter would later marry Ellen Sturgis Hooper and work as the Keeper of Paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

[Artlust]

Mathias Chaillot, 'Les garçons regardent le lever de soleil au Point du jour' (2021)

Horace Castelli, Lord Castlereagh sees the “radiant boy”, a spirit attached to the Lytton family

[H/T: barefoot boys]

Ryan James Caruthers, 'Beautiful Boys'

St. Jinx Art, 'Ridin’ the Maypole or something'

Aldo Bahamonde, Morpheus 

Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw, within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,
An angel writing in a book of gold:—
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the presence in the room he said,
"What writest thou?"—The vision raised its head,
And with a look made of all sweet accord,
Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord."
"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so,"
Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerly still; and said, "I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that loves his fellow men."

The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night
It came again with a great wakening light,
And showed the names whom love of God had blest,

And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest. 

['Abou Ben Adhem', by Leigh Hunt]

AdeY, "Autumn Is Coming"

Jules-Elie Delaunay, Reapers in the Roman Countryside

John Light as Oberon and Matthew Tennyson as Puck in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream directed by Dominic Dromgoole at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London. (Photo by robbie jack/Corbis via Getty Images)

George Platt Lynes, 1953

[H/T: Gay Cultes]

Matthew Brookes, Model Chad White and his son

And they are absolutely gorgeous together!

 
That time when you come home from work... and find these two sitting on your sofa, cuddling and giggling mischievously - and definitely looking forward to later on!

Kylix from Capua, c 490 BC (Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin)

Boy Scout Troop (1950s)