An excellent article. Indulge me as I reminisce my youth in and around a very vibrant gay community way back in the late 1970s and 1980s. The gay community (which was the label back then for *both* homosexual men and women) was becoming politically powerful, mainly due to the horror of the AIDS epidemic. First they demanded “tolerance”, which most straights were down with - it wasn’t long before tolerance and acceptance became more the norm than the exception. However, tolerance wasn’t enough. Communities which had long felt marginalized wanted more than tolerance. They wanted celebration. A straight who merely tolerated must now cheer and support and embrace. And all organizations which were viewed as straight were suddenly ripe for colonization. Resistance was lambasted as “homophobia” and in many cases, brought to court and prosecuted. Many such colonized organizations were transformed into nonexistence - destroyed. Soon, even bringing up and questioning the wisdom of this process was dangerous to the person who wanted to discuss the elephant in the room. This was all seen as “progress”.
Now that you’ve read this little history, re-read the article and try to spot the irony.
An excellent article. Indulge me as I reminisce my youth in and around a very vibrant gay community way back in the late 1970s and 1980s. The gay community (which was the label back then for *both* homosexual men and women) was becoming politically powerful, mainly due to the horror of the AIDS epidemic. First they demanded “tolerance”, which most straights were down with - it wasn’t long before tolerance and acceptance became more the norm than the exception. However, tolerance wasn’t enough. Communities which had long felt marginalized wanted more than tolerance. They wanted celebration. A straight who merely tolerated must now cheer and support and embrace. And all organizations which were viewed as straight were suddenly ripe for colonization. Resistance was lambasted as “homophobia” and in many cases, brought to court and prosecuted. Many such colonized organizations were transformed into nonexistence - destroyed. Soon, even bringing up and questioning the wisdom of this process was dangerous to the person who wanted to discuss the elephant in the room. This was all seen as “progress”.
Now that you’ve read this little history, re-read the article and try to spot the irony.
What a superb article! Please keep writing!
I tell people I'm transing to Silverback.