In talking about a book she read, Sheryl LeSage in the Editorially Speking column in the May issue of Liberty News brings up several issues homosexuals deal with—and gives evidence that more and more of our community/movement publications are going to deal with aspects of sexuality that must be faced.
The book, Androphilia: Rejecting Male Identity, Reclaiming Masculinity, by Jack Malebranche (what a name) apparently says that men have been “indoctrinated” by gay culture to be less masculine. Strange, it was my thinking that the opposite is true.
As LeSage points out, this is the opposite of the “feminist” movement which told women to have to fit a “pattern” and not be butch or femme, and as she asks, “how’d that work out for those pinch-faced ladies?”
Speaking of books, she (LeSage) also finds books about male homosexuals written by women. Sweet love stories of sweet young men. Again, the opposite of what the usual books are, lesbian sex written for men. Only sexy women will do.
What we are in reality usually doesn’t fit the molds or stereotypes. As she says, the cover of the book has Spartan helments, and they are empty and hollow and imposing and hard. Is that a good view on life?
The question is obvious? Why do homosexuals have to fit a pattern? And why are WE trying to force our idea of a good pro-gay on the community almost as much as the bigots do? And why are we so worried about which is the best term to call ourselves? Why must there be only one acceptible term? Why must we have a hetero type marriage? And how is that working for the heteros? (See current articles on growing number of single moms, growing number of heterosexuals who are living together and NOT marrying.)
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
Do homosexuals need a Martin Luther King, Jr to lead us? (Windy City Times, May 18 thissue)
Wayne Besen’s column “A Fractious Movement” in May 13th Windy City Times concerns an issue that our community/movement should be talking about. It is only one of the issues that can affect how successful we are and will be in gaining our equal/civil rights and helping everyone understand our concerns, which many of us don’t even understand, much less non-homosexuals.
Besen says that some of us are thinking we need a charismatic person to come lead us, something I assume like the black civil rights movement had Dr. King. That seems stange considering how successful our cause has been since 1950 wihout such a person. He is right when he says that in fact it is the diversity of people and ideas and efforts that has made us strong and more difficult to stop. An example he gives is that while most of us have problems with how religion has harmed us, some of us are working within the various religions to change them.
It was not easy when there was only “ONE” organization and publication speaking for us, even though ONE, Incorporated, always gave equal opportunity to all groups and views. But it is good today to have so many millions of us working for the cause that each of us can choose the particular part of the cause we want to work on, legal (such as Lambda Legal, GLADD, NCLR, etc.), religious (such as SDA Kinship, Dignity, Affirmation, and of course MCC), our heritage (ONE Institute, Gerber/Hart, Lavender Library, Homosexual Information Center, etc), political (such as Stonewall, Log Cabin, etc.),social service (such as the several good glbt centers in major cities, youth concerns (such as GLSEN), the military (such as SLDN) and even bloggers who alert us to what our enemies are doing, and sites such as Daily Queer News, On GYB, etc.
So anyone who wants to step forward and try to speak for us, fine, but I personally don’t want the President (Obama or whoever) to choose one person to decide what millions of homosexuals want or think. For instance, while it seems most of us are pro-choice, we have pro life people such as PLAGAL. We are strong ony when we allow diversity that we ask of others. While I don't seek marriage, I certainly do nothing to discourage those who do. And a final thought: It is very interesting, for those who read and trust polls, that while more and more people are now in favor of same sex marriage, more people now are against abortion. How do those in favor of civil rights explain this?
Besen says that some of us are thinking we need a charismatic person to come lead us, something I assume like the black civil rights movement had Dr. King. That seems stange considering how successful our cause has been since 1950 wihout such a person. He is right when he says that in fact it is the diversity of people and ideas and efforts that has made us strong and more difficult to stop. An example he gives is that while most of us have problems with how religion has harmed us, some of us are working within the various religions to change them.
It was not easy when there was only “ONE” organization and publication speaking for us, even though ONE, Incorporated, always gave equal opportunity to all groups and views. But it is good today to have so many millions of us working for the cause that each of us can choose the particular part of the cause we want to work on, legal (such as Lambda Legal, GLADD, NCLR, etc.), religious (such as SDA Kinship, Dignity, Affirmation, and of course MCC), our heritage (ONE Institute, Gerber/Hart, Lavender Library, Homosexual Information Center, etc), political (such as Stonewall, Log Cabin, etc.),social service (such as the several good glbt centers in major cities, youth concerns (such as GLSEN), the military (such as SLDN) and even bloggers who alert us to what our enemies are doing, and sites such as Daily Queer News, On GYB, etc.
So anyone who wants to step forward and try to speak for us, fine, but I personally don’t want the President (Obama or whoever) to choose one person to decide what millions of homosexuals want or think. For instance, while it seems most of us are pro-choice, we have pro life people such as PLAGAL. We are strong ony when we allow diversity that we ask of others. While I don't seek marriage, I certainly do nothing to discourage those who do. And a final thought: It is very interesting, for those who read and trust polls, that while more and more people are now in favor of same sex marriage, more people now are against abortion. How do those in favor of civil rights explain this?
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