May 28, 2023
By Chris Chi
Sharing stories about us…
Hello beautiful people!
A newsletter? Yeah! That’s right! I was chatting with a friend from Ultrecht today about the sales of the taleofmen zines and the frustration of having my accounts constanly deleted by Instagram when he suggested that I should start sending out newsletters to keep my followers updated about the project. As a matter of fact, I love this idea. It gives me more freedom without any censorship meanwhile I can share more content such as my travels, behind the scenes stories, etc. It feels more organic. I hope you guys will enjoy it and stay connected!
MEMORY
(with Tiago in Ericeira, 2019)
It’s been too long. I miss Portugal enormously. The light there has some airy quality that everytime when I look at the photos, my heart skips a beat. Of course, I miss Tiago, his eyes and smile, the days we spent, walking and talking about our lives. I want to be back again, hopefully, soon!
FIRST ORGY
Let’s start with a bang! Finally it happened. When Joey, a.k.a. creamteam came to Antwerp for the darklands, he invited me to his group sessions at his hotel. I was delighted since I had never been in an orgy before. It’s the first time I met Joey and the boys. Surprisingly everyone was very chill and friendly. It didn’t take much time before everyone got into action. The next day, Joey organised another group session again. I drove from Brussels to Antwerp again to photograph it. It’s even more intense this time. The curtain of the window next to the bed was open. We thought we might have given the hotel guests a show. I remember one of them could fuck and get fucked like a champion. He moaned loudly while cumming. For God’s sake, after the orgies, these boys headed out to the parties of the darklands later for more fun.
During my trip to Berlin in Easter, I met Joey again. This time, it was a well planned 20 people orgy! I still remember arriving at his place, ringing the doorbell, watching boys before me and after me entering the building, walking up the stairs, as if it’s the most normal thing to do. The experience was awesome. Together with two other videographers, I filmed the scene and took some photos. And yes, the loud moaner was there again. I was happy to see him. It calmed my nerves, seeing familiar faces. The rest was simply fun, hot fun.
It makes me wonder what makes orgies such a turn on. Certainly, there are more asses and dicks. Maybe it’s about the freedom? Loosing oneself among all the naked bodies? I am curious how the others see orgies and what their experiences are. So I made a survey on Instagram ask what they prefer. Over 200 followers answered it. Here is the result:
- two people’s paradise (35%)
- the more, the merrier (65%)
Oh boy. The numbers certainly speak volumes! You guys are naughty!
On a more chilling side, a topic that can often be heard among content creators in Berlin is the crackdown on pornography on social media in Germany. Many of the content creators have received letters from German police accusing them of breaking the law with threat of huge fine and even jail. I knew a few of them and a lof experienced it like someone had thrown a bomb in their life, causing fear and anxiety. I was shocked and confused. In Berlin? A very sex positive city with the reputation of diversity and freedom?
UTRECHT & PRIDE
When Cosmin, a Romanian cutie who moved to Utrecht one year ago, told me that he could host me, I happily fixed a weekend to visit him. It’s good to escape from the routine in Brussels where I live and work. So I packed a few film rolls and the newly acquired Yashica T5 when the long weekend came.
During my stay, he constantly reminded me how lucky I was to have such beautiful weather as it was rainy and cold before I arrived. True,there is always something special about sunny spring days, the fresh air, the bright light, the vivd colors and the optimism of people. We tried to take some photos at home, then went to the naked lake near Utrecht. We left lazy and we enjoyed it. Jackie, the most friendly cat I have ever met, was perhaps the most active one in the house as he walked in and out of the flat, going on mysterious adventures several times a day.
While visiting Utrecht, I skipped the Brussels Pride. On instagram, I saw people getting ready for the Pride. I always have this double feeling when it comes to Pride every year. On one hand, it’s a happy occasion to celebrate us. On the other hand, I just don’t fancy the idea of pride becoming a huge party. Plus, I tend to avoid huge crowds as much as possible due to my anxiety. Therefore, I rarely show up in the Pride.
Nevertheless, I do follow up a bit on social media and talk about it with friends. No matter how I feel about the Pride, it’s still a celebration and an occasion to feel good and joy with friends and families. Actually, Cosmin is putting plans together of organising the Pride back in his hometown in Romania.
Cosmin’s words:
Recently, a Dutch friend told me that he couldn’t imagine a world where you’re not able to hold hands in public or lay down in a park with a same gender partner. I’m from Romania and moved to the Netherlands last year. That world he talked about was all I knew and was my reality because you always have to be cautious, always have to look over your shoulder when you’re a queer person living in a very conservative place, with very little or no access to information about who you are. It’s a reality I grew up with and very different from the one I’m currently experiencing and enjoying. The lack of information, of human contact with members of your community and seeing almost no queer representation, drives people apart and underground, and it’s a very difficult mindset to get out of. But I personally feel lucky that when I came out, I had nice people around who supported me and I also had lovely boyfriends. It taught me that a relationship between two guys was possible and I would not hide in the closet forever.
I was born in 1990, when homosexuality was still illegal in Romania. After communism fell in ’89, homosexuality would still be outlawed 12 years later – it was decriminalized only in 2001. Until then, you could still go to prison for being gay with a sentence from 1 to 5 years. Before that, the communist regime had free range for over three decades to arrest, investigate, blackmail, torture and incarcerate gay people. That drove queer life in Romania extremely underground and very little is known about it from that time. We still need to recover our own history.
Bucharest had its first gay march in 2005. I come from a city called Iași, one of the most conservative in Romania and the second largest. There I founded the first LGBTQ non-profit organization and, in 2021, organized the very first Pride festival in the history of the city. This year will be the third, which I’m going back for. The Pride march in my hometown still feels like a fight and sometimes a bit scary because of protesters, and not like a big party. That’s when you realize that Pride is most needed in a place like this. Romania needs to catch up with the rest of Europe and legalize same-sex marriage, actively combat hate speech and hate crime, make access to HIV testing and medication easier, and also make the transition process safer and easier for trans people. And I hope one day Romanian queer people will get to feel accepted and secure in their own country.
STORY THAT I HEART
Growing up being gay in a small town in the west of Ukraine is quite difficult. And the problem here is not that, in fact, the LGBT community does not exist there, but that society was too conservative in its perception of non-traditional orientation. Bullying by peers is the least that happened to me there. The worst scenario was not that bad though – my hands were grabbed behind my back by a group of radicals, and one of them punched me in my face. I was released after that, having a bitter taste of a blood in my mouth and of injustice in my heart. Nevertheless, I wasn’t threatened anymore.
In fact, the overall situation in my country has fundamentally changed. First, moving to a big city changed my perception of myself, and opened up more self-awareness of sexual preferences. Secondly, according to the latest public opinion polls, about a third of Ukrainian society has changed its opinion about the LGBT community for the better. It seems that a special unit of the Ukrainian army – @lgbtiqmilitary – played a big role in this.
This was one of the reasons why I made a coming-out in front of the whole country. Courage played in my veins, and I helped both @melovin_official and myself – at the biggest festival in the country, which had an online broadcast on TV channels, we kissed. This was the first case of an open come-out in Ukraine.
SOMETHING STEAMY
He fucked me for at least half an hour.
With my legs on his shoulders, choking me, spiting on me and even giving me a few slaps in my face.
We were hugging the whole time.
Grabbing each other’s face.
Making eye contact.
He came inside me, it was amazing
Seeing his face of pure pleasure…
I was close, so he kept on going.
When I was coming, he started screaming. It was his second load…
A FLEETING MOMENT
We had been friends long before we started having sex, eleven years to be exact. On that night we had been dancing until the sun came up and we were feeling more carefree than we usually allow ourselves, maybe because of the drugs or maybe because dancing to exhaustion agrees with us. Somehow I always felt closer to you in that sweet abandon. As the sun rays made everything feel more tangible, revealing the true shapes of the trees and leaves around us, I confessed my love for you, for I could never love anyone the way I love you as a friend.
—- photo & text by Joao Matos
MOLE II
MOLE II is the second part of Sebastian Pantaleone’s photography project. When I asked why such a name, he said “because a mole hides to survive”.
THE SEX ZINE
This special edition of the Tale of Men zine is all about sex positivity. To make it more unique, it has collected real sex stories submitted by the followers. Less than 20 copies are left. Hurry up and grab your copy!
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