From: pentangl@spdcc.com (Scott Moir)
Subject: Re: Gay Homophobia (was Re: Too straight looking to be gay???) (was re:
Organization: S.P. Dyer Computer Consulting, Cambridge MA
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 10:56:13 GMT

In article <1992Aug20.183940.9395@microsoft.com> bobsarv@microsoft.com (Bob Sarver) writes:
>
>(elf)
>/   I disagree, really... One way or another we have to convince the
>/ hets, wherever they are, that we are just another kind of human, just
>/ as reasonable as they are.
>
>Finally.  A small voice of reason.
>
>Elf (is that really your name?) is right; sometimes the minority has to
>(unfortunately) do the education work, because the majority is fat, dumb
>and happy and won't lift a finger to educate itself.

Tell me, what kind of education do you think we should be doing? I'd be
interested to see what you mean here. Lets hear your suggestions.

>(elf)
>/   Then you want the truth, Bob?  Truth or not, your "handsome,
>/masculine, and closeted" gays are _cowards_.  
>
>No.  They are simply being judicious about whom they associate with.

Right. They only associate with people who won't blow thier cover.

>Elf, do you believe that coming out of the closet can be made easier?
>If you answer "yes", then the next question is:  do we have any
>responsibility to make it easier on people?  To provide them with
>positive role models and an easy path out of the closet?

Yes, we do have the responsibility to provide role models. Funny thing
about role models though, is that they have to be public and visible.

>If there are actions which obstruct or hinder the coming out process,
>do we continue doing them or do we back off and stop doing them?

Here is where your logic fails. It isn't hard to come out because of 
some number of gays being queeny, it is because the average het person
will react to you in a negative way for being out as gay. They don't act
negative because of the queens either, it is because gays are -different-
from the 'societal norm'. You are advocating stopping doing the things that
rattle the cages of het people. You want us to become invisible and
non-threatening so that they have nothing to react to.

Are you also going to advocate not holding hands in public? Not kissing?
Are you advocating the 'a good faggot is a quiet faggot' attitude?

All the examples you have stated for role models so far have been, until
recently, INVISIBLE. What kind of role model is that?

>(elf)
>/   Sez you, Bob.  Do you think it's *at all* easy for any gay man to
>/come out?  
>
>Of course not; don't be stupid.  It is never an easy thing.  But just
>because it is already hard, that is NOT an argument for making it even
>harder.  Why do you want to make an already difficult decision even
>more difficult?

That isn't what we are doing. What we are doing is bringing up the 
visibility level. Letting those het neighbors know that there are gays
living next to them, working next to them, on the train, in the park.

Letting them know that we aren't isolated deviants. Demanding the right
to be who we are, without pretense. If you are silent, who even knows that
you are there? I'm not a clone, I'm unique. I live without hiding. I do not,
however, shove it in people's faces. There is a difference (At least for me).

Take a little step. Stay as Butchy as you are, don't change anything about
yourself. Just add something. A tiny pink triangle, you know... a lapel pin.

Does that change your masculinity? It shouldn't.
Does that change your butchiness?  Nope.

What it does do is make you visible, and allows you to be a role model
for people who are too scared to come out. It shows them that you can be
butch and gay. That IS what you are trying to say, right?

Scott

-- 
Scott Moir / Pentangle / Satyr ______ # "There's really only one requirement 
pentangl@Ursa-Major.spdcc.com  \ \/ / #  for a Prophet, and you've got it."
B4 f t+ w g k+(+) s+ m r p+     \/\/  # "What's that?"
These are my opinions, not SPDCC's    # "A mouth." - 'God' to J.R.'BoB' Dobbs