Colombia legally recognises union between three men

Alejandro Rodriguez, Manuel Bermudez and Victor Hugo Prada at their home in Medellín.
 Photograph: Courtesy of Manuel Bermudez

When a public notary in Medellín signed the paperwork last month formalising the union between Prada, Manuel Bermudez and Alejandro Rodriguez, local newspapers declared it the first three-way gay marriage.

In a legal sense however, theirs is not a marriage, according to Germán Rincon-Perfetti, the lawyer who drew up the document. “By Colombian law a marriage is between two people, so we had to come up with a new word: a special patrimonial union.”

The document states that the three of them constitute a family and are each others’ legal partners. “We are not three friends living together. We are a family, a trieja,” says Prada, using the Spanish version of the term “throuple”, which indicates a stable relationship between three individuals. “We were already a family before this. The paperwork just formalised it.”  

Bermudez and Rodriguez have been together for 18 years and were the first gay male couple in Colombia to receive formal legal recognition of their partnership in 2000, 16 years before the country’s constitutional court legalised gay marriage. “Back then the issue wasn’t even debated,” says Manuel. During eight of those years they had a three-way relationship that included Alex Esneider Zabala. Four years ago, Prada joined the polyamorous relationship.

The four of them had planned a ceremony to celebrate their union. But when Zabala died three years ago after being diagnosed with stomach cancer, Prada, Bermudez and Rodriguez realised that a ceremony was not enough. “As much as we considered ourselves a family, we had to fight hard to be recognised as Alex’s partners when he died,” says Bermudez.

The surviving three sought to formalise their relationship through legal means. Rincon-Perfetti, who drew up the paperwork 17 years ago to seal Bermudez and Rodriguez’s union, offered to help. He knows of no other case in the world where a polyamorous relationship between three men has been granted legal recognition.

“There are a lot of throuples but it is completely clandestine,” says Rincón-Perfetti. He said he expects other polyamorous partnerships to seek the same legal status after the media attention on Prada, Bermudez and Rodriguez’s union.

 [Read more in the original Guardian report here]

Love

It takes so many forms.  If it's sincere and also unselfish, how can it be wrong?

I loves ya

Such a warm and friendly scene.

Full on

A three way with three handsome blokes.  Nice.

From FuckYeahQueer

Footy, chapter 29

Emma and Sean start to look past their own hurt to the future, especially Will's future.  It's an optimistic chapter, and it's full of hope.  And maybe, even plausible.

You can read it here.

Threeway love

Footy, chapter 24

I've just uploaded chapter 24 of my novel, Footy, to my website.  You can read it here.

Goaded, Jasper said, “Actually, yes. He was very kind to me when my mother threw me out.” 

“Kind?” Mark was hurt and angry. “What kind of ‘kind’?” 

Very quietly, his voice close to breaking, Jasper admitted, “We fucked.” 

“Fuck!” Mark was yelling. “You bastard!” 

“I was... desperate. My mother...  

“Desperate!” Mark’s scorn was palpable. 

“I’m sorry.” Jasper was unable to meet their eyes. He’d failed them. He’d fucked up. He was going to lose everything. He’d thought he’d at last be happy, that’d he’d found a new family, one that would love him and keep him close. A single tear dripped from his bent head onto the table. 

“Why didn’t you come home to me for ‘comfort’?” asked Mark, no longer angry, just shocked and sorrowful. The tear had shaken him. He wanted to take Jasper into his arms and hug him. He wanted to make it better. But he was hurt and angry himself. 

Almost in a whisper, Jasper replied, “You were at Fiona’s” 

“Oh, God!” said Mark. “Oh fuckin’ hell! Jas, I’m so sorry.” 

Keith & friends

More or less, though Jason is blond.

[Thanks to Piet!}

Majorca Flats -- 237

Keith kissed the back of Luigi's neck, and lubed up his hole with his other hand. As he slid into him, he tweaked Luigi's nipple ring and bar. With his mouth close to Luigi's skin, he said softly, “I want to fuck ya silly, Lou. Deep inside ya. Till ya come all over my sheets.”

Luigi still half thought of Keith as straight. For him, straight-acting made a man he was having sex with seem straight, even if he wasn't. And despite everything his rational brain told him, it was a turn on. “C'mon Straight-boy,” he said. “do me properly.” It didn't even spoil the fantasy or throw him when Keith said with heartening sincerity and affection, “Ya're a top blaoke, Lou,” and turned Luigi's head and kissed him.

Jason was lubing up Keith, and though he wasn't speaking, his mouth was moving all over Keith's back and neck, and his hands were busy too, twisting Keith's nipples and fondling his cock. Jason pushed his cock carefully into Keith and began to thrust slowly at the same time that Luigi began to push himself back onto Keith's cock. All three took it slowly. They were a little clumsy at first but quickly developed a rhythm. For the most part, Keith didn't move much. The other two did all the work.

Keith had had sex that morning with Tom. Luigi and Jason had pulled their wires in the showers that morning, both imagining the other. They took a while to come. But it was all the better for that. When they came, within a few seconds of each other, the sensation was so intense it was almost painful. Even better was the warm rush of affection they felt for each other. They held each other close, without speaking. No one wanted to use the love word. Not yet.

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Majorca Flats -- 235

See more of this artist's work here.

Keith switched off the TV, and in silence they finished the the last of the champagne in their glasses.

“You haven't forgotten, have you Key, about fetching my gran tomorrow?”

“Nope. Do I look stupid to ya?”

Jason opened his mouth with a wicked look on his face.

Keith put his hand over Jason's mouth before he could speak. “Don't answer that!”

They stripped and slipped nude under the sheets. It was surprisingly hot for an autumn night. Keith engineered it so that he was between the other two. He turned and kissed Luigi. “Hey,” he said, very quietly.

Luigi's shiny black eyes gleamed back at him in the half-light in the room. “ 'Lo, handsome!”

Jason reached across and snugged Keith's cock in his hand. It was hard already. “What are you thinking about stud-muffin?”

“You. And Lou. And us.” Keith turned to look at Jason. He kissed him, deeply, and his own hand clasped Jason's cock. “Can I be the sandwich filling tonight?”

“So who do you want to fuck and who do you want fucking you?” asked Jason.

“I want to fuck Lou, and I want you up me.”

''Kay.”

“Ya knaow where the condoms are, Jace. Give us each one, OK?”

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Majorca Flats 219

 “Esmé isn't like that.”

“Isn't she? She's fucking in love with Key. For all I know, they're fucking.”

“So? Keith fucks Tom. You knew that, didn't you?”

“Yeah.” Luigi scowled. “But it's different!”

“Why?”

Luigi pulled himself out of Jason's arms and went to stand at the window looking down at the street below. A tram went by, rattling over its tracks, and the driver pinged its bell at a wayward car. “I don't know,” he said at last. “Maybe because … because if you're married you're supposed to be faithful and all that stuff. Maybe because the hets always win. Everybody approves of marriage! Everybody goes all dewy-eyed about a newly married couple. As long as they're a man and a woman. Everybody's assumptions are that this is the real relationship and ours is inferior. Worthless. Meaningless.”

“Keith would never hurt you, Lou.”

“Yes, he would, if Esmé married him and then said marriage is for two and he had to be faithful to her. I knew a bi bloke who got married and his wife knew he was bi and before the marriage said 'no it's fine I won't mind if you have a man occasionally.' As soon as they were married, she said, 'oh, I can't bear it when you're with a man.' So he stopped.”

[Image from World Polyamory Association]


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Majorca Flats -- 201

He snuggled closer to Jason. They kissed with élan, Keith's tongue clever and strong inside Jason's mouth. Jason kissed Keith back as enthusiastically, and then without stopping the pressure of his groin and doings against the other man's side, he lifted his head and smiled at him. “Hey,” he said.

“Hey, yourself!” Keith's smile mixed affection, love and lust, and Jason found that even more erotic than the feel of Keith's hands on his body, of his mouth against his.

Luigi reached over started to massage Jason's cock, which was already plumping up. He began to stroke it slowly, up and down, his hands warm. He leaned over Keith and nibbled Jason's nipples.

“Hey! Wait a sec,” said Keith. “Jace should be in the middle.” He climbed over Jason, and Jason wriggled over so that he was between Keith and Luigi.

Keith grabbed the tube of lube and slathered up the fingers of his hand.

“Lift your legs,” he said to Jason.

Jason raised his knees. Keith inserted one well-lubed finger into Jason's bum.

Luigi's started pulling Jason's wire as Keith inserted a second finger and then a third into Jason's butt and started massaging his prostate.

Luigi was kissing Jason now, while Keith ran his mouth up and down the inside and outside Jason's calves biting them gently every few seconds while he continued to rub with his fingers. Jason took a bit longer to come this time. The sensation of two mouths on his body while one pair of hands stroked his cock and caressed his nipples and fingers stretched his arse and rubbed his prostate was extraordinary, and he came explosively.

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Majorca Flats -- 200

Keith climaxed first and as his ring clenched convulsively round Luigi's cock, Luigi came too. They collapsed into a heap on the bedclothes.

“That was good,” said Luigi.

“Just good? Not earth-shattering? Heavenly? Out of this world?” Keith had rolled over and was facing up, his eyes warm with affection and amusement.

“Don't want to give you a swollen head,” said Luigi, cradling Keith's head as he said this, and kissing him on his forehead.

“You already did!” replied Keith smirking.

“Other head, numpty!”

Keith pretended to be downcast.

“Since you were in such a hurry just now, Jace, I think it's your turn again,” Keith said, turning towards Jason on his other side.

Jason leaned over and kissed him and then kissed Luigi's fingers and hand because he couldn't reach his face. “Indeed!  What are you guys waiting for, then?  C'mon!”

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Majorca Flats -- 199

“Let's go through to the bedroom,” suggested Keith.

Dropping his clothes in the lounge-room, he led the way through to his bedroom. He lay face down on the bed and said, his voice muffled by the pillows, “The cock jackets and lube are in the top drawer.”

Jason fetched two condoms and the tube of lube, and gave one condom to Keith and Luigi. He was too soft to put on a condom, and anyway, he had jizz all over his cock. It wouldn't be safe even if he did put on a condom. Luigi started to kiss the muscles of Keith's back, tracing the line of his spine with his tongue, all the way from the vulnerable hollow at the back of his neck to the curves of his bum. He bit each glute softly. Keith ground out, “Jeez, Lou, fuck me now!”

“With pleasure,” whispered Luigi.

He snapped the condom onto his cock and lubed it up. He slid into Keith gently, carefully. He didn't want to hurt Keith. Or break the condom. He started to move inside the other man, sitting upright. Jason lay down next to Keith and turned his head towards him and started kissing him.

Keith was surprised how big Luigi was. Luigi managed to angle each thrust just right, and tremors of intense pleasure swam through Keith's body each time Luigi pushed into him. His mouth was being plundered by Jason, and his arse by Luigi. He hadn't been this turned on since he and Tom had first started fucking.

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Majorca Flats 198

Keith knelt in front of Jason and helped Luigi undo the last button on Jason's jeans. He tugged the jeans down and started sucking Jason's junk through the cotton of Jason's trunks. Jason groaned, “Not so quick, Key, I'm going to cum! Slowdown!”

Keith ignored him, and pulling Jason's trunks down to his knees, took his cock into his mouth. Behind Jason, Luigi slipped his tongue down the cleft of Jason's bum, and Jason felt the warm muscular tip of Luigi's tongue lick his ring and then enter him. Unable to stop himself, he came at once. Keith swallowed his cum and looked up at him. His eyes were dark with lust. He stood up and kissed Jason. Luigi stood up too, and also kissed him.

Jason tasted himself in the other men's mouths.

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Majorca Flats -- 197

Stumbling a little, they left the bar at about eleven. That was early for Keith and Jason but Luigi had to work the next day. The air was warm and still, the last warm days of summer. Already the leaves on the plane trees were yellowing and browning, and the rose bushes in the tiny city gardens were starting to look bedraggled, worn out by summer. But it was full moon and her light etched the shadows into indigo and lit the roads and pavements with silver and white.

At Keith's flat they didn't even bother to drink tea or alcohol but fell upon each other at once. Jason was kissing Luigi, his tongue exploring Luigi's mouth while behind him Keith was pressed against his back nibbling his neck, his hands brushing against Jason's nipples. He started undoing the buttons on Jason's shirt, and slipped his hand between Jason's warm hard stomach and his jeans. He squeezed Jason's junk, and bit him gently on the neck at the same time. Jason turned round. Keeping one hand on Luigi, he kissed Keith back. He lowered his head and bit Keith's nipples through the cotton of Keith's T-shirt.

Luigi reached around Jason and started undoing the buttons of Jason's jeans. As he undid each button, he kissed Jason on the back of his neck and stroked Jason's sixpack. “I want you to fuck me straightboy.”

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Majorca Flats -- 193

Tradies in Hard Yakka pants

One day, walking home to Majorca Flats, Jason deliberated very carefully whether he was falling in love. He didn't think so. Yes, he was very partial to Keith, but he liked Luigi too, and what's more, he found Luigi intensely arousing and desirable. When he pulled his wire in the shower every morning, he imagined himself with both the others, with himself in the middle of a threesome and Luigi doing him while he did Keith. Or of Luigi in the middle with himself on one side and Keith on the other.

Truth to tell though, he was beginning to feel a strong need for sex again when they set off together from Keith's flat to The Lambs Go Bar. He was filled with the prickly excitement of a second date.

The Lambs Go Bar was a small Victorian pub, much smaller than The Lord Grey, but very charming, full of what looked like the original stained glass and oak settles.

Keith had been correct: the clientele were very different to The Lord Grey's. There were mixed couples as well as groups of women on their own. But there were also a few gay couples, too. He admired one man wearing baggy diaphanous harem pants with a fluorescent green thong underneath, sandals with turned up tips like something from 19^th century Istanbul, and a skin-tight T-shirt. You could see that his nipple rings and a stud in his belly button through the thin cotton. He was with a man still in his tradie gear, dusty blundstone boots, torn Hard Yakka pants and a T-shirt which had clearly seen better days. His shoulders were like cannon-balls, and he had a bit of a tummy. Jason didn't know which he found sexier.

Keith noticed where he was looking. “Yeah. Interesting couple, huh? But I bet the blaoke in the gauzy pants doesn't go out loik that unless he's with Mr Hunk next to him.”

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Majorca Flats -- 168

He pushed his paper coffee beaker round the table in front of him.

“But I still like women.” Very quietly, looking away, anywhere but at the other two, he added, “I still hope I'll find somebody, maybe get married, have kids. But there's the, ya knaow, virus, and anyway, what woman would want a strayt kid, a whore?”

“C'mere!” said Jason. Keith shook his head. Jason stood up and went over to Keith's end of the bench, and standing behind him, put his arms round the other man and rested his head in Keith's curls. “What woman would want a man who's clever, kind, and sexy? Hmm?” he said, and then he bent his head to one side and kissed Keith's ear. Keith reached up with his hand and squeezed Jason's arm.

“I didn't mean to be shitty,” offered Luigi. “I just … well for me, I'm only interested in blokes. I couldn't … you know … get hard for a woman. I suppose it's because I'm such a queen.”

“You reckon, Lou? I reckon if I was up you, pounding away, you'd be hard as, with any woman.” Keith's eyes glinted.

Luigi coloured.

Keith grinned. “No shame here, mate. Sex is sex, and love is love, and never the twain shall meet. No, I don't mean that, I knaow they can. But, Lou, I'd get hard just doing you, ya knaow that?”

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Majorca Flats Episodes 1 to 10           Majorca Flats Episodes 101 to 110
Majorca Flats Episodes 11 to 20         Majorca Flats Episodes 111 to 120
Majorca Flats Episodes 21 to 30         Majorca Flats Episodes 121 to 130
Majorca Flats Episodes 31 to 40         Majorca Flats Episodes 131 to 140
Majorca Flats Episodes 41 to 50         Majorca Flats Episodes 141 to 150   
Majorca Flats Episodes 51 to 60         Majorca Flats Episodes 151 to 160
Majorca Flats Episodes 61 to 70
Majorca Flats Episodes 71 to 80
Majorca Flats Episodes 81 to 90
Majorca Flats Episodes 91 to 100

Friends, acquaintances, love

I've been thinking about friendship, about love, about how at heart, most humans are fundamentally solipsistic.  Over the last four years, I've been nursing my best friend through his grief and anger at the death of his wife.  I may merely be cynical and bitter (and I don't deny it) but I have a very strong feeling that he wouldn't be there for me if I was in the same situation.  During this time he showed sides of himself which I found unattractive.  I know you are supposed to love your friend whatever happens, but it doesn't work like that: there comes a point where your feelings -- and you can't control them -- leave you.  And after that, what do you have left?

Then I happened to find an old letter in my files to an e-friend.  Well, perhaps an e-friend.  I'm unsure what he is now.  He's in strife now, and in pain.  And I'm there for him.  But ... why do I waste my time comforting him when I know he'll move on one day without a backward glance?

Then there was this guy I talked to on the train.  Intelligent, witty, different, he asked me what I was working on so diligently on my laptop.  Well, I told him.  Since then he's avoided me.  He sits elsewhere and barely makes eye contact.  I suppose he's embarassed by my writing.  An attempt to connect fails.  Sic vita est.

And lest you think that I am holding myself up as some kind of paragon, I am far from one.  An old school friend, whom I was half in love with 40 years ago, tries hard to keep in touch with me, and I am bad at reciprocating.  He needs affection and love too, we all do, and while I whinge pathetically about its absence in my life, I'm not prepared to put in the hard yards to make sure he's OK.

Ah well.  Maybe I'm just borne down by my ill-health and financial situation. When many things go wrong you struggle against even small setbacks.  I'm going to make a resolute effort to count my blessings.

Majorca Flats -- 162

“So you've had an all-nighter with them, have you?” she asked in an off-hand way as she flicked the strainer and adjusted the steam pipes. It was obvious she meant sex. Luigi had never met a woman before who could talk about male to male sex so easily. He blushed deeply. He wanted to run away.

She looked up. “Oops! Sorry. It's just that Keith and I are very old friends” — the pause and emphasis on the word were so slight that Luigi almost missed them — “and we always share stories about his, um, blokes.” He was sure she'd been about to say another word.

“Well,” he said, feeling the heat leave his face slowly, “I'm more Jason's friend.”

Esmé looked at him sharply when he said this, then shrugged a little. “He's a nice bloke,” she said in a way which suggested to Luigi that she didn't in truth mean it.

“Yes, he is!” he retorted, nettled. “He's a lovely bloke. He was … very kind … to me.”

She smiled. “Yeah. You're right. I'm feeling a bit out of sorts this morning. Take no notice of me.” She made a fourth coffee and put them all in a cardboard holder.

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Majorca Flats Episodes 1 to 10           Majorca Flats Episodes 101 to 110
Majorca Flats Episodes 11 to 20         Majorca Flats Episodes 111 to 120
Majorca Flats Episodes 21 to 30         Majorca Flats Episodes 121 to 130
Majorca Flats Episodes 31 to 40         Majorca Flats Episodes 131 to 140
Majorca Flats Episodes 41 to 50         Majorca Flats Episodes 141 to 150   
Majorca Flats Episodes 51 to 60         Majorca Flats Episodes 151 to 160
Majorca Flats Episodes 61 to 70
Majorca Flats Episodes 71 to 80
Majorca Flats Episodes 81 to 90
Majorca Flats Episodes 91 to 100