In the previous blog post, I described those encounters with the more obnoxious racist Finnish gay men. Some guys were more willing to get to know better.

I will begin with Timo (name changed). Timo was a deeply closeted medical doctor, a couple of years older than I. For our second date, we went to a bar (a "straight" bar, of course). For several hours he tried to convince me that "the Jews are not a real nation" and that "Israel is an artificial construct", or some nonsense to that effect. The evening became increasingly tedious, as I was repeating the same responses, and he was getting drunker and drunker.

In retrospect, now I know that he was simply reciting antisemitic Soviet propaganda, fed to him by Finnish media and Finnish pseudoscience. Recall that he was a medical doctor. So, supposedly, an educated person. A year or so later, I did meet another medical doctor. He was also very much closeted, afraid for his job and career. That was Finland, at least ca. 2010 – apropos pinkwashing.

But enough with the Timos. Next is Juha (again, name changed). Juha was one of the very first guys that I got to know in Finland. We met a few times. On one occasion, when we were meeting for dinner, he brought with him an article from Helsingin Sanomat (Finland's main daily newspaper) about the ultraorthodox jews in Israel and the demographic and economic challenges that Israel faces, concerning them. I laughed and brushed it aside, saying "yes, I know all about that". But I could not help but wonder, if he would bring an article about the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq, were he meeting an American guy, or a piece about Hong Kong democracy or occupied Tibet (does anyone remember Tibet?! That's a boomer's thing, I guess) to dinner with a Chinese guy.

Again, in hindsight, Finnish media does infect the populace with an image of Israeli society as a monolithic mass of brainwashed militarists. So Juha may have just had the misguided intention of trying to "educate" me. Similarly to that conversation with the student that I described in part 1.

Looking back at those experiences, I can now conclude that neither Timo nor Juha were really interested in me as a friend and/or partner. I was more of an Eliza Doolittle project to them (I guess no one younger than 45 would get the reference). Once I have proven resistant to conversion, they lost interest. No embassy ball for me (again, reference). I did bump into Juha some years later in a gay club. He only said "you're still here?!".

Of course, I did get to know other guys, who were more fun. Whatever they thought of Israel or Israelis, in general, they kept to themselves, and were able to interact as one individual human being to another. But the examples of Timo and Juha do demonstrate, how entrenched anti-Israel and antisemitic views are among well-educated Finns, and how easily they affect interactions among individuals.

To be continued...