The Life of Gay Culture...


Fun in the heartland, where Andrew Sullivan hasn't been in a few years.


A few weeks ago, Andrew Sullivan wrote an article about the death of gay culture. Basically his argument was that since a bunch of twinky club kids no longer talk to him at the bar, gay culture is dead. OK, that wasn't the substance of the article, but I strongly suspect it was the motivation behind writing it. Anyway, he goes on and on (and on and on) as he often does, eventually concluding that gay culture is being assimilated into straight culture (and perhaps even vice-versa as straight guys become metrosexuals and gay guys become bears.)

It would be an interesting argument if there weren't so much God-damned (and I mean that literally) evidence against it.

Example One: See that nice rainbow flag on the front of our house, in the picture? We've had one up since we moved in about 7 years ago. We enjoy living right on Main Street and being "The Gays on Main Street." We'll meet someone who is new in the area and mention that we live in Chelsea and we always hear the same thing, "Oh, do you guys know the gays on Main Street?" Yeah. That's us. Well, for the second time in a year, the flag was stolen. Last time, they just removed the pole and flag. This time, because we got smart and bolted the pole to the standard, and locked the flag onto the pole, they had to break the pole off to get it. I'm trying to figure out what to do next time. Titanium metal pole bolted into the foundation? I've been thinking about putting a wireless webcam in the window, and a little sign at base of the flag pole that says something like: "Smile, you're on our webcam! That's HOT!"

I suppose it could be worse. We're out about $20.00 for the flag and the pole. They could have thrown a brick through a window or spray painted the house or something. One of the reasons I think I'll just keep the flag pole easy to remove is that I'm afraid that if it is hard to remove, they'll resort to some other, more expensive sort of vandalism. By the way, Brian reports that the Chelsea Police Officer to whom he made his report was completely professional and understood the possible "bias issues" involved.

Example two: The University is producing The Laramie Project this weekend, and guess who is coming to protest and picket? Yup, he who shall not be named on this website, will be in town. Isn't that nice? I don't want to give this protest any more ink than it deserves, but there is a website regarding the counter protest.

So, Mr. Sullivan. Perhaps in your little insular world, gay culture is dying, but I'd say as long as we keep pissing people off, it is very much alive, thank you. Yes, perhaps dressing like Liberace and swishing like Paul Lynde is becoming significantly less common in favor of being "straight acting" (whatever the heck that means). But I'm not sure that is, or ever was, a good definition of the extent of gay culture. I think a much better measurement of whether or not gay culture is alive is how much we're being targeted by the bigots, homophobes, fundamentalists, and Republicans in this country.

Posted: Wed - November 9, 2005 at 10:55 AM        

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