Affection between men

Since this is just a photo I snapped on the street here, I have no idea what the relationship between these men is..

At first glance I wondered if the two men embracing were a gay couple...then at closer look it seemed more like father and son ( I think another son or friend is taking the photo on the sidewalk).

I would not bring this up at all except that ever since AIDS panic hit New York in the mid-1980's, open affection between men on the street has become rather uncommon...occasionally you will see two men walking together holding hands, but not for long..they do not really want to draw that much attention to themselves.

In fact, in light of the recent attacks on gay men on the streets of New York ( one of them murderous)
a lot of gays have noted that they feel more on edge again after having gotten used to New York as a "gay friendly" City.

I notice there is also the Hollywood-style of men hugging each other on TV all the time ( something which I think has its roots in the flamboyant stagey affectionateness of Zsa Zsa Gabor  way back when) and also books which urge parents to hug their children more, etc.

One TV sitcom called "The Middle" (about life in "Middle America") reminds us that out there in between the Coasts, "Men do not hug, they shake (hands)."

Meanwhile, polls show most Americans outside the Bible Belt regard the general acceptance of such institutions as gay marriage " inevitable."

Maybe it goes back to the "rugged " idea of men from the American frontier. You can't imagine some of those traditional folk heroes like Daniel Boone ever hugging another man and certainly not that 20th Century epitome of "manliness" for so many Americans, John Wayne. And, in our more recent time, Clint Eastwood.