Oh man. A friend of mine from GMSMA emailed me the attack on 'homocons' that Richard Goldstein did in the Nation. The Left has never, ever been anything more than a small and vocal minority among gay men and lesbians. I'd warrant that until the AIDS crisis politicized homosexuality, we were as likely to be Republicans as we were Democrats. And that's how most folks on that end of the political spectrum identify themselves, as Democrats, not Leftists. Centrists, in other words. Sullivan and Vincent and the rest of them are no more the pawns and dupes of the 'Far Right' than Goldstein is of whatever remnants there are of international communism. That's ludicrous. Reading the article really has me frazzled, and I'm not quite thinking (or writing) clearly as a result. A coupl'a' things though...

With the exception of a few candidates here and there, gay men and lesbians have not been embraced by the Democrats any more than they have been by the Republicans. (I remember when then presidential candidate Michael Dukakis was asked about what he would do to address the AIDS crisis if elected he sneeringly replied that his positions didn't differ much from George Bush's. That would have been great, given that President Bush (#41, not #43) signed the Ryan White CARE Act into law and his administration orchestrated drastic reductions in the length of time it took for promising new treatments to win FDA approval), but based on his record as Governor of the Bay State, he was planning on ignoring the issue altogether.)

Gay men and lesbians are something like two or three times more likely to be regular church attendees than are heterosexuals. We are a God-fearing people.

The majority of successful efforts to beat back anti-gay initiatives have put forward classic libertarian arguments: get government out of our bedrooms. Ain't nobody's business if I do.

The Great Left Alliance of gays and Blacks and feminists and PLO supporters and socialists has never and will never materialize. There is no such thing as movement politics. People are motivated by their own political self interest, but to be successful politically, you've got to rope in a few other voting blocs. Goldsteins brief mention of the alliance between the Black Panthers and the Gay Liberation Front is laughable. As far as I'm aware, GLF did a bunch of fundraisers, but the Black Panther Party was rife with homophobia and even accepting the money spurned a great deal of debate. I believe there were a few (or one) exceptions in the leadership, but if there was ever a GLF demonstration or pride march that was attended by any formal representatives of the Black Panther Party, I'm not aware of it.

How come it's okay for gay men who don't identify themselves as conservative to question whether we pay way too much attention to youth, beauty, and body fat percentages, but when a more conservative voice asks whether our priorities might be out of whack, he's labeled 'sex negative.' Poor Bruce Bawer was forced to spill so much ink defending himself against the charge that he 'hated drag queens.' C'mon. You wanna have sex? Go have sex. Have lots of sex. What's stopping you? Who's standing there in your bedroom telling you not to? You want to have nasty sex? That's fine, too. But be an adult about it. Act responsibly. Do your best to not infringe on folks who might not want to be witnesses to your coupling. What is this yutziness about being 'more promiscuous than thou' and from whence comes the assumption that gay men have somehow cornered the market in this area?

During the time we were together, my ex and I traveled through Georgia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ireland, Quebec, Oregon, and California. We bought a house together. I attended functions at the school where he taught, and he showed up at a few of my job related things. How much guff did we get? How many jaundiced eyes were cast in our direction? That would be zero. Zip. None. I am not oppressed. I'm just not. Growing up gay is no more or less difficult than growing up with a speech impediment, or braces, or a weight problem, or athletic ineptitude, or freckles, or parents who were recent immigrants, or an accent, or buck teeth, or big ears, or whatever. Everyone has a crappy time as a kid. Are there wackos out there who unfortunately have the ability to make decisions about who does or doesn't get the job or apartment or mortgage? Yeah.

Sheesh.