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Author Topic: Is There a Gay Community In Anyone’s Future?  (Read 5094 times)

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K6

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Re: Is There a Gay Community In Anyone’s Future?
« Reply #5 on: Mon, Apr 24, 2006, 11:21 »

Astounishingly, when the legal discrimination is finally abolished (as in some countries now), gay communities fall into a stage of decay instead of prosperity - very sadly. It seems that the oppression has united us more than the newly achieved legal equality does! The reason is that we have too long lived musing about what wrongs "they" have made to us - instead of contemplating the good things that we could do for us. This helpnlessness must be overcome.

We are meant to prosper amidst adversity and then and in the context of a gay independence movement in a sound spirit of adventure offering us continuous new challenges.We would like to rest sometimes,but that is not us.We are the children of adventure and discovery,and our place is on the side of what is dynamic in life as in politics.In suburbia,in pursuit of mere careers and in an assimilationist quest for some copycat of the hethro family life,we will never find happiness.

K6

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Re: Is There a Gay Community In Anyone’s Future?
« Reply #4 on: Mon, Apr 24, 2006, 11:09 »

The gay people have labored for a very long time under the peculiar delusion that all things must be decided by and come from str8 people.

In realpolitiks,as in sovereignty,what counts is what we hold by ourselves and on our own,and which cannot be taken away by heterosexuals.
Our sexual orientation of course,but growing beyond that,our culture and politics.We have grown a somewhat monstruous sector of the erotic
and commercial variety,but quite neglected other aspects of gay social life these late years.No wonder we have now among us an important trend of opinion which does not even regard gayness as a political affair,and which - of all things - now rests on nature and genetics for the continuation of our existence.A gay independence movement should restore some measure of responsibility in gays for their own fate.

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Mogul

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Re: Is There a Gay Community In Anyone’s Future?
« Reply #3 on: Mon, Apr 24, 2006, 05:01 »

Astounishingly, when the legal discrimination is finally abolished (as in some countries now), gay communities fall into a stage of decay instead of prosperity - very sadly. It seems that the oppression has united us more than the newly achieved legal equality does! The reason is that we have too long lived musing about what wrongs "they" have made to us - instead of contemplating the good things that we could do for us. This helpnlessness must be overcome. There are so many things which could be made with gay money - from housing projects and credits for the small business to libraries and community centres.

It's time for the new positive thinking in the communities - with a new self-confidence and self-reliance.
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right!" Salvor Hardin

Feral

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Re: Is There a Gay Community In Anyone’s Future?
« Reply #2 on: Mon, Apr 24, 2006, 03:19 »

While sovereignty over our own country lies at the extreme end of gay nationalism, there are a thousand shades of sovereignty in between that  point and where we are today. Acknowledging, finally, that "we can make our little gay world a better place only by making changes for and by ourselves" is one of the first major hurdles we must leap. Even if the gay people never progress beyond this point, it will have been an immense accomplishment.

The gay people have labored for a very long time under the peculiar delusion that all things must be decided by and come from str8 people. If we wish for laws barring discrimination in housing and employment, we ask the str8 people for them. If we wish for protection against violence and murder, we ask the str8 people to do it for us. Rarely does it ever occur to anyone that a cash register operates for gay people in the same manner as it operates for str8 people. Gays can build, own, and rent houses just as str8 men can. We can teach pupils as readily as str8 teachers can, yet there is but one secondary school for gay students in the US, and but one classroom in Canada. And still we clamor for the str8 people to do something about bullying in the schools.

Many things take time, and it has been 37 years since the Stonewall Uprising. The capacity and inclination of the str8 people to do anything for us has, I think, been exceeded. It is high time we as a people at least thought about our situation in our own terms.

The article itself is filled with questions worth consideration.
« Last Edit: Mon, Apr 24, 2006, 03:35 by Feral »
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Mogul

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Is There a Gay Community In Anyone’s Future?
« Reply #1 on: Mon, Apr 24, 2006, 00:22 »

Doug Sebesta has contributed an article to the San Francisco Bay Times: Is There a Gay Community In Anyone’s Future?. The article deals with the newly emerged problems of gay communities, namely the growing social isolation despite of existing (commercial) gay infrastructure, and growing barriers among gays.

"As a social movement, we as gay men are at a critical juncture. We’re beginning to redefine who we are as a people, what we want out of life and what we want from each other. Not to diminish our collective nightmares of the past (and acknowledging that many of us are continuing to fight for our lives battling HIV, Hep C and addiction), but as a culture, we are beginning to step out of the total shadow of AIDS, learning to be sexual again and to live again.

Many of these issues are not being faced by gay men alone. The breakdown of community affiliation that’s affecting everyone is related to the ubiquitous change that is taking place in our world. But our history as gay people, our experiences and our place in that world are unique. Successful grassroots activism and community organizing show us that we can make our little gay world a better place only by making changes for and by ourselves.

Now is the time that we need to be asking ourselves as a movement what we want to be when we grow up. Can we queers once again be visionaries of social change? What kind of world do we want to leave for future generations of gay youth? Why are there so few young queers at our table; have we made a place for them and do any of them want to be there?

We also need to ask what’s best for our collective good. Is it assimilation into the larger fabric of American society or is it creation of an equal but different experience? Have the political and social directions we have been fighting for pushed those less in the mainstream farther and farther away? Is there a growing divide between the men creating nuclear families and those among us who choose a different path? What, if anything, is our shared responsibility to each other?  Is there still a place for fun and the playful celebration of our outrageousness? And perhaps most important, what is the role of community, what is our identity as gay people, and what is our vision for our future?"


Obviously, an increasing number of community's activists is re-thinking our status in the world. It would be fine if they would make the next logical step - towards a national movement.
« Last Edit: Mon, Apr 24, 2006, 04:46 by Mogul »
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right!" Salvor Hardin
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