[GN] Together and Equal
Devil Doll
First, the idea that separate equality is an incremental step to full equality is coming from the same people who otherwise insist that we not settle for half-measures; we applaud the Vermont almost-marriage decision but we continue to work for full legal recognition. I agree with these people when they say we don't settle for half-loaves; I think they are being dishonest when they represent separate equality as an acceptable incremental progress; I think they really want to hang onto the distinctiveness of gay culture because real equality is integration, and that means accepting restrictions as well as privileges. BORE ring dah ling.
Historically, separate but equal never really is. After civil rights but before integration, blacks went to schools that were inferior in every way to white schools and racial tension increased if it did anything.
Historically too, homosexuals are only accepted in times of peace and prosperity as we are now enjoying. When times get hard, frustrated people go looking for targets, and gays have always been among the first to suffer. Times are going to get rough here sometime again too, I pray it's not soon, but when it happens I want gays to be so familiar and unremarkable, so long "not an issue" that the idea of hating us is merely absurd. We must be too well-integrated to isolate.
Those who want to hold onto "queer culture" have their own reasons; on this list we hear from some who see us as the vanguard of social transformation, the radicalism of the 60's that was supposed to lead to some utopia of diversity with every variety of sexual adventurism and lifestyle experimentation out in the open and free of shame. Others want to forever relive the life of the 70's, to escape the mundane and ordinary into a glittering mirror-ball world of camp and kink, where the disco never stops playing and where the conversation is always a meaningless tittering patter of entendres, where the streets are full of flamboyant displays and roaming regalia.
I have three words to say to these people: get over it.
I's not going to happen. As Daniel Harris bemoans in "The Rise and Fall of Gay Culture" and Michael Warner laments in "The Trouble with Normal," the heyday of gay distinctiveness passed long ago and with every passing year gays see themselves less and less as "queer" and more and more as plain ol' folks but for "that one little thing." The trade for our acceptance is our sense of being special and elite; it's not a price being extracted from us, though; it's a burden we are shedding, and good riddance.
What some of you see as the sanitization of gayness, others see as liberation from isolation and as maturity. We don't need that radical shit any more.
We're not going to transform society; we're going to take our place in it. We're not going to lead the straights into a new world of sexual freedom and liberation from shame; we're going to accept the set of rules expressed and hidden and live by them.
Oh, those lifestyles will live on, none of them ever really die; there are still hippies and punks and even beatniks, and there will still be isolated anaerobic micro-ecosystems of queerness, but it won't be mainstream, it'll be just another living fossil. Some aging men will even gather under mirror balls and dance listlessly to Donna Summer, reminiscing for the old days, but most of us will be in our nice homes with our partners and our concerns will be more like dinner-for-eight-but-only-seven-spoons ... than about pushing the social envelope.
Queer culture should die, though, and we should be happy to give it up. It's always been nothing more than an accommodation and a reaction to ostracization. It's always been terribly elitist and repressive, a phony aristocracy of the young and attractive and a dismal isolation for everyone else. It's been a prison of its own, and like some sort of cultural Stockholm Syndrome, we thought we liked it. Gay culture sucks.
There was some beauty in it, at times; it did develop some charm of its own and many of us called it home. But it was at best a defective toy and children need to put away their toys someday.
Kiss them goodbye.
==
Devil Doll
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devi...@SuperVillains.org
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Zeke Krahlin
> The history of separatism should be enough to reject the idea, but since
> it's come up again on this list I think we ought to dismiss it again.
You confuse the concept of gay ethnicity with "separate but equal" laws.
Most gays who propose the continuation and furthering of gay ethnic
culture do *not feel good about this "separate but equal" gay partnership
in Vermont. In fact, these are two, completely different issues.
You have a mean-spirited attitude against any cultural gay identity, and
take only the shallow stereotypes as your excuse to put down everything
gay. As you say:
> Queer culture should die, though, and we should be happy to give it up.
> It's always been nothing more than an accommodation and a reaction to
> ostracization. It's always been terribly elitist and repressive, a
> phony aristocracy of the young and attractive and a dismal isolation for
> everyone else. It's been a prison of its own, and like some sort of
> cultural Stockholm Syndrome, we thought we liked it. Gay culture sucks.
I say, that queer culture has just begun. As conscious beings, we can
decide whether or not it should perish...we can even decide to advance gay
ethnicity to such a level as to make the drag queen, leather, S&M (none of
which I ever cared about) and other aspects look like mere childish
experimentation in developing our ethnicity. While other minorities come
from a rich ethnic background, we will be the first minority to *create
our distinct ethnic flavors and colors. (Though we *do have a rich
heritage of courage and long endurance, with artistic output reflecting
that...much of which remains repressed, but shall eventually be
resurrected....which heritage will provide an enduring foundation for the
evolution of gay ethnicity.)
Just as other ethnic groups (Italians, Jews, Irish) etc., see fit to
preserve their cultural heritage in Amerika, I believe that gays should
too...but with the added realization that our ethnicity is also a future
project more than a gathering of past tradition.
Your proposal of complete assimilation into the Amerikan culture as it now
stands, is far from admirable. Our culture is presently rather xenophobic
and conformist (w/big dose of gov't/corporate/military paranoia), when
compared to other, more liberal cycles in our history. For gays to conform
to an essentially homophobic society, is comparable to Jews in the 1930s
attempting to conform to the Nazi society that took over. And I'm sure
there were some of those.
You take some aspects of the gay community, that you despise (and I do
too)...but unlike myself, you project those aspects to represent (falsely)
our entire community...thus you would stomp out all history and community
of gay people. This strikes me as reactionary; even a form of internalized
homophobia, or at best, self-made elitism ("I'm better than you
self-identified queers").
So I figured I'd squeeze this message through, knowing that you might
succeed in having me banned, based on some flimsy rationale that I am
somehow violating netiquette. (Goodness me, once more I've had to replace
your private e-mail in the "to" box, with Gaynet's. Mea culpa, mea culpa!)
---
Right-wing queers are all it takes
To fill gay rights with rattlesnakes.
http://surf.to/gaybible
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