First, a trivial question -- what year was this from? I note a reference to the "salutory demonstrations" against the Dan White verdict; this event is termed elsewhere as the "White Night Riot" and occurred on 21 May 1979. Generally the tone of the piece strikes me as coming from the very early 80s... the same time as Denneny's Sixteen Propositions.
Some matters
have changed since then, some for the better and some for the worse. Mr. Burroughs' casual remarks concerning "medical aid" would, I think, be couched much differently had they been written after 1982.
One immediate concern is the author's inopportune use of the Tongs as a model. He is, of course, speaking of a simple mutual aid association or
benefit society. Such things have a long history and are hardly a novel concept or a difficult proposition. In American English, however, the word "Tong" has come to mean a violent crime syndicate devoted to trafficking in narcotics. Perhaps Mr. Burroughs' famous familiarity with drugs allowed him to overlook that aspect and focus on the other qualities inherent in the Tong. Not a few people would be unable to make that separation, and it would probably better to employ some other term that does not suggest so many extraneous possibilities. 'Landsmanshaftn' would be another possibility, though here lies the trap of inflaming the imaginations of people who are allergic to Zionism. Any of a number of names might be applied to a fraternal organization, though. They are just words. Probably the safest to use would be 'mutual aid association.' Indeed, I know of at least one urban Gay community center (in Edmonton) which is officially organized as a mutual aid association, though I have not heard that they provide the explicit benefits of such an association. No doubt the phrase has specific legal definitions in some jurisdictions.
Mr. Burroughs dangles the prospect of physical defense from violence, legal aid, medical aid, job and housing aid and advice, a social meeting place, and recreational facilities as the reward for forming such organizations. There is little to argue with there. One might add the care and housing of our youth to the 'job and housing aid and advice' category, along with both finishing their educations and continuing the education of all members. He also points out that "It may be argued that the gay ghetto already performs these services. Some do, to be sure." The ghettos are not what they once were, but some of these services still
are provided. Many large cities in the US (and other places) have a Gay community center. The curious thing is, as old and common as the mutual aid association is, no "Gay Tongs" existed when Burroughs suggested them and nothing very much like them has spontaneously arisen in the interim. I have to ask:
if this thing is possible and desirable, why has it not already happened?Now...
of course this thing is possible.
Banks and credit unions are not very inscrutable concepts. It may not be 'simple' to form a successful one as a business, but it is hardly impossible. There are Gay bankers. I can name some of them. Why, then, is it not commonplace for some fellow (or couple) who is inclined to 'settle down' to simply negotiate a mortgage from some Gay financial institution?
Real Estate may be a tricky business to run well, but it is not impossible. Certainly, there are Gay Realtors. They
do advertise to a Gay clientèle. Many even own their own Real Estate companies rather than acting as employees of straight companies.
The same can be said for employment agencies, educational institutions, insurance companies and health maintenance organizations, even security companies (both private and public -- there are Gay police officers, and many cities have at least a liaison officer for the Gay community). None of these things are impossible for Gay people. They are so
not impossible that there are Gays in
all of these professions.
One might, as Burroughs has, say that the problem is one of a lack of organization.
The problem
can be phrased that way.
"Organize, organize, organize" is a constant refrain, especially among the Left in the US (or what has become of it -- the chorus was louder and the tempo was more frenetic in the 80s and earlier). You would think that this is some sort of magical mantra that can effect wonders if only it is intoned properly and often enough. It's not. The way people go on, you would think that the Gay community had no organizational abilities whatsoever. To the contrary -- I do not think there is even
one cause of interest to the Gay people that does not have some acronym-named organization devoted to it.
Ah, but there is no
national organization, there is no
international organization, there is no
unified effort; false and false -- a pile of falsehood (except for the 'unified' part... that's true enough). There are any number of national organizations. Pick a country, any country, and, unless you are being needlessly contrary and selecting someplace like Yemen, you will find some national Gay organization that aspires to do at least
something. Any number of organizations at least
claim international status... often in their very names.
This brings me to this "affreuse frivolité." It is true that any group must transcend its weaknesses in order to protect its interests. This idea, though, that we, as a people, "could never get together on anything" is absurd and manifestly false. It's quite enraging some days to hear this charge leveled time and time again. The
opposite is true, you know. We spawn organizations like salmon. Gay organizations breed like rabbits. The idea that Gay people are inherently more argumentative than some other group of people is just plain false. It's born, I think, from both a lack of knowledge about the travails of other organizations (read about the insane schisms that beset the early Zionism movement or, for a proper education on the subject, the history of the factionalism in the early Communist movements) and an unhealthy preconception about how an oppressed people surely
ought to be unified and of one mind. Visit any Parents Teachers Association meeting, stop by some condominium association meeting, even some trade union meeting; 'solidarity forever' indeed. People are fractious. Get over it. We have a remarkable habit of not sharing the same mind. This is a virtue, not a vice. Yes, people disagree, often very strongly, and organizations routinely carry on their normal functions against the expressed wishes of those who have dissented. Now, those strange organizations that value consensus above all things don't carry on against the expressed wishes of those who dissent -- it's been my observation that such groups generally don't "carry on their normal functions" at all.
I have hypothesized a different trait in Gay culture that has nothing at all to do with 'frivolity' that may be at work in this perception that Gays "could never get together on anything." We
shun. As a society, we lack just about every instrument imaginable for societal control. We have norms, as a people. We do. It's been my observation that, when a group of Gays is faced with some disruptively non-conforming behavior, apart from a sharp escalation in "drama" (the rattlesnake's rattle in warning), we cast people out. I find we do this reflexively, both as individuals and in a group. It's about the only tool we have, and we use it.
An example: a young man in his late teens is being escorted to the local club for the first time by his newly selected clique. This ought to be, by the way, Lesson One in coming out and coming home: find your clique, do it quickly, and pick carefully. Thereafter, make some effort to both contribute and continue to belong. You start out with a free pass, later one must earn one's continued membership. The young man, who by all custom is obviously accompanied, obviously unavailable at the moment, and obviously ought not be accosted, is accosted anyway by some fellow. Perhaps the guy has had too much to drink. Perhaps he is unfamiliar with the customs. Perhaps he is just stupid. The results are predictable: the clique swarms. Youths, especially those who have been 'adopted' are not unprotected creatures. To outside observers, the ferocity of rebuke is quite surprising. After all -- Gays enjoy a peculiar reputation for being mild-mannered. I can't imagine where it comes from... certainly not from within Gay culture. This fellow's only option is to apologize -- immediately and profusely. It would have been better had he not caused affront at all. The apology might not work. If he does not, of course... he is instantly a social pariah, at least with that clique. He is cast out. There is no returning from that... not so long as anyone remembers. Should the situation sadly escalate to include further affronts and other cliques become involved, this fellow will find himself quite quickly cast out from pretty much all interaction with the local Gay society. (You will find an echo of this little drama played out with HRC these days -- they have been seen to transgress, and grievously. A multitude of other organizations in the community have spoken against it. HRC must now quite carefully navigate the consequences, or the organization will fall, and fall completely. Think not? Watch and see. Already the equivalent of immediate and profuse apologies has taken place. What we are watching may look like simple organizational lobbying, but it is really a trial, a capital case. Social death is one possible outcome. Will HRC survive it? It remains to be seen, but I suspect so, at least in part. They
did back-pedal quite promptly when rebuked.)
There are Gays who insist that there is no Gay culture, no society. They don't see it. I have to suspect that these poor creatures have been cast out in this very way. They are being shunned; of course they cannot see the Gay culture. Gay Republicans wonder (they do... which says very little for their intelligence) why the simple act of "coming out" as a Republican should have such...
less than pleasant... consequences in social settings. The practice extends to corporations from time to time. We are a boycotting people. It's what we do. It is the first and best sanction for unacceptable behavior, and we do it all the time, pretty much all of us.
So, when disputes arise in an organization, as they inevitably and quite naturally will, there comes a point when the organization's impulse is to obtain consensus by expelling the dissenters. As draconian as that is, it quite often goes unnoticed because the first impulse of the dissenters is to 'expel' the troublesome organization. High levels of disagreement lead to organizations literally exploding when
all factions decide to utterly shun one or more others. I'm told this happens to the Sydney Mardi Gras organizers on a nearly annual basis. We've seen the Gay Games split into two different events with two different organizing committees. As a society, perhaps we should be less inclined to schism and more inclined to solidarity, but then a failure to sacrifice for the sake of solidarity seems to usually be the specific affront that causes the expulsions and schisms in the first place. More likely, our society needs to learn to give up the myth of solidarity.
There is one other consideration. Of course we can get together. Even Burroughs' points out that it seems only to be
some of us who cannot. We get together all the time. Forming organizations is a habit for us. We have a lot of them. We just don't have organizations along the lines Mr. Burroughs describes. In the area of defense in particular, there are almost no efforts made at all by the Gay community; not now, not ever. There have been some, to be sure. There is an effort in that direction today. In the past they have received no support at all and I predict the current efforts will receive none either. It's not a lack of organization. Oh, no... there is no conceivable lack of organization. There
is a lack of what might be called "federalism." No Gay organizations function to transfer resources or services from regions that have them to regions that do not. That, you see, would require some sort of identity. Why can we not seem to support perfectly reasonable efforts to secure the physical safety of our people? Because that would require some sort of identity. There would have to be a "we" to do these things. Police power, after all, is the purview of the state, of the municipality, of the society. Note that these things are more properly termed the heterosexual state, the heterosexual municipality, the heterosexual society. There already
are police in Sydney, after all. Why
should the Gay people of Sydney police their own neighborhoods? How
dare the Gay people of Sydney derogate the right to defend themselves from the rightful authority of the Sydney Police? In short, how dare the Gay people of Sydney (or any of the other cities planning such activities) presume to be anything other than residents of Sydney? Police power requires an identity. So too would any region-spanning effort to do anything like what Mr. Burroughs suggests. The Gay people are entranced by the dream of inclusion in the already existing "we" that is the heterosexual society. There
is no Gay "we."
You can read it in any of a number of comments posted to stories about the Sydney policing effort -- "it looks like it's more about revenge than anything else." Any effort to provide a needed service to Gay people is greeted with "but it's so exclusionary. I thought we were above all that." Gay people, like all people, have certain needs. Those needs aren't all that difficult to meet. The structures that meet these needs are generally called "civilization" or "culture." As a people, we can easily come up with every apparatus to meet those needs. Now, the effects might not be identical to some other system that exists to meet them. The apparatus that exists to meet people's needs in Canada is quite different from the apparatus that exists in, as a casual example, Azerbaijan. If you look at the innumerable Gay organizations that currently exist... what is their purpose? Which of the needs of the Gay people are they designed to meet? It seems to me they are all locked into a perpetual war with the straight people. They simply insist upon being "included." The Gays in Germany have no lack of organizations devoted to their own front in this war. The Gays in the US seem to think this particular war shall be won by some magical inclusion of every letter of the alphabet in organizational acronyms, so many fronts have they opened in this war. At the root of it all is a simple premise: my sexual orientation ought not matter. They all of them seek to fulfill the needs of the Gay people by forcing the existing heterosexual apparatus to serve.
The thing of it is, it
does matter.
And I rather think it
ought to matter.
So the straight people don't like us... what of it? It's not like they're entirely welcome at our parties anyway.
What remains is just how far are Gay people willing to take this bizarre battle of turning something that self-evidently
does matter into something that does not? One example will suffice here, though parallel examples can, no doubt, be produced for any of a number of topics. A phenomenal number of Gay youth in the US are homeless. Actually, this problem seems to be fairly consistent throughout the West. Statistics that at first seem quite improbable end up being repeated -- it seems that one in four Gay minors are either cast out from their homes, often violently, or are forced to leave by the threat of violence. There are millions of teenagers on the streets (or more commonly on the couches of their friends) in the US. There are millions more in Britain, and many thousands in Canada. Probably there are still millions more elsewhere. A quarter of our most vulnerable people. The alphabet soup of Gay organizations curiously thinks that some sort of eternal war with the heterosexual monopoly on Child Services to oblige them to care for these youths as they care for the heterosexual ones is in order. After all, their sexual orientation
ought not matter. Would it not be more sensible to house these kids, feed them, clothe them? In all seriousness, if their sexual orientation did not matter, most of them would not be homeless. Keep in mind that the "success" the alphabet soup has achieved to date is that
some program directors no longer claim to have no Gay charges.
Some programs have even admitted the existence of Gay youth to the extent that they are willing to try to
count them. Imagine that -- counting children, when what is needed is housing and clothing and food and education and a modicum of actual concern for their well-being. But at least they are (in some places) willing to count them. Most of them do an excellent rendition of certain presidents when they say "we have no Gay children in our system. I don't know who told you that we did." (The Gay kids themselves are the source of this news of their existence, by the way... as usual.)
The care and feeding of youths is not an arcane science. The Gay people can manage it quite well, were they to attempt to do so. The education of youths is also not all that arcane, though it is generally best given over to professionals rather than amateurs. All the statistics in the world about the plight of Gay youth in schools (pretty much any country's schools) seem only to be marshaled in this ridiculous eternal war with the straights over "inclusion." Why is there only one Gay school (so far as I have been able to determine) on the entire planet, and but a handful of supplemental programs? Because, foolishly, the Gay populace in general, everywhere, has bought into this myth that their sexual orientation
ought not matter. They've bought into this myth that the eternal war can, if only they apply themselves long enough and with enough solidarity, be eventually won.
What a very pretty thought.
I wonder, though, just how many kids are to be permitted to die each year for this pretty thought? I'm not willing to go so high as even one. It is a material problem, with a material solution: house them, feed them, educate them... ourselves. Why is this far simpler solution not acceptable? The same goes for housing: cannot Gay financial institutions finance homes for Gay buyers, cannot Gay landlords rent to Gay tenants? Cannot Gay security forces bring law enforcement to places where the heterosexual monopoly willfully will not? Why is this simpler solution not acceptable?
Whatever the answer to that question is, it is the answer to Burroughs' questions. "Can they function effectively in an organized context? Can they establish units that will operate over a period of time? Can they extend the services of the gay Tongs to any area of America? " It's also the answer to my own. "If this thing is possible and desirable, why has it not already happened?
My own speculation on the matter is that it is not a question of "can." Of course we can, and yes, of course there would be disagreements and conflict and altogether too much drama. There would be schisms and periodic collapses. We're quite used to that though... we do it all the time and will continue to do it until we learn not to. Instead, this matter is a question of "will." As a people,
of course we can do these things. We clearly, as a people,
don't want to do these things. We want to do something else entirely... we want an eternal war for an impossible objective.
I note that even Burroughs cannot escape the trap of 'inclusion' for the sake of public relations. Mr. Burroughs' example of street violence is somewhat dated. It was a remarkably topical concern in the early 80s as that was the beginning of a remarkable surge in violent crime in the US. While the subject of street crime has remained a concern in the Gay neighborhoods that survive, it has become less urgent in the greater society. Gay people ought, I think it's clear, to live in territorially discrete places. Gay services are easier to administer in Gay territory. The ghetto simply cannot be all places. It just can't. Naturally, street violence in Gay territory is within the operational jurisdiction of the Gay people's police power. The security of the Gay people depends not only on the physical defense of Gays, but also on securing public order in the neighborhood as an end to itself. The orientation of some attacker or some victim is not really at question here -- the "orientation" of the neighborhood is. Gay neighborhoods ought to be defended from violence. If some heterosexual passer-by happens to be safe thereby, how happy for him. Offering up some nation-wide militia of Gay crime fighters to defend all people in all neighborhoods as a public relations scheme is a nonsensical fantasy -- it is the eternal war all over again. It would not have been a useful strategy back when it was a "hot topic" among straight people and it certainly is not a useful strategy now that it no longer is. This conflict is won, not by 'inclusion,' but by separation. By this I do not mean stomping off in some fit of pique, I do not mean shunning heterosexuals out of some sense of animosity. I mean taking care of your own business because it is your business and not someone else's.
If there are dirty dishes in your kitchen, wash them. Do not harangue your neighbors about how they must include you in their housekeeping. Do not rail about how the fact that you are not a member of their household ought not matter. Just do your damn dishes, then they will be done. Leave your neighbors to do theirs in peace.
A mutual aid association, or a number of them, could certainly integrate any number of efforts to provide much-needed services to the Gay people. Franchises of this association could spread extend these services to any number of places in the world. A vertically integrated corporate approach to solving these problems will work. Of course it will. It might even work spectacularly well. What is needed at this point in time, however, is not a mutual aid association -- it's the will to have such a thing, an acknowledgment that 'we' exist and are worth such a thing, and understanding that the countless other costly efforts the Gay people have been undertaking are almost without any merit at all. First we need to know that our sexual orientation
does matter. After that, mutual aid associations would go a very long way toward solving any number of problems facing the Gay people.