For Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr, and Queer Pri Month, Dennis Zotigh, a cultural specialist at the Natnal Mm of the Amerin Indian, ved Native iends to tell how their tradnal culture saw s LGBTQ members. A Chirihua Apache iend replied, “Now, Dennis, this is a human qutn, not [jt] Native.” We agree. But we also appreciate hearg what Native Amerins have learned, renstcted, or been unable to renstct about this part of our shared history and experience.
Contents:
- ‘GAY TRIB’ ON GRDR: WHY ’S TIME TO STOP TEGORISG EACH OTHER
- A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.
- AN ILLTRATED GUI TO REGNIZG YOUR GAY STEREOTYP
- GAY GETS BETTER (AND MORE TARGETED): SAY HELLO TO THE NEXT GENERATN OF GRDR
- WHICH GAY TRIBE DO YOU BELONG TO?
- TWKS, JOCKS, AND BEARS, OH MY! DIFFERG SUBCULTURAL APPEARANCE INTIFITNS AMONG GAY MEN AND THEIR ASSOCIATED EATG DISORR PSYCHOPATHOLOGY☆
‘GAY TRIB’ ON GRDR: WHY ’S TIME TO STOP TEGORISG EACH OTHER
Wh the addn of "Grdr Trib, " members of the gay workg app now have the abily to classify themselv unr 12 tegori: Bear, Clean-Cut, Daddy, Discreet, Geek, Jock, Leather, Otter, Poz, Rugged, Trans, and last year's relnch of (om Here Media), ers had already been dog the same wh a functn lled "muni. Begng 1981, the perd of several years over which HIV/AIDS spread rapidly among the gay muny.
Thoands of gay people lost their liv to AIDS-related illns durg the 1980s, at a time when the ndn was unr-rearched and nsired untreatable. Trib and Tribulatns: An Ethnography of College-Aged Gay Men and the Problems They Face.
She documents the liv of gay llege stunts, and do so through an engagg wrg style that brgs the rear to the liv of her rmants. However, this dream is not so easy for everyone to achieve, pecially if he or she happens to be gay. Last semter, I had a chance to observe some of the difficulti first hand while studyg the micro culture of gay male llege stunts.
A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.
Durg our meetgs I nducted rmal terviews and asked qutns about folk terms and the gay llege muny general.
I foced specifilly on the gay muny on a small liberal arts llege mp and ral, more nservative muni, like the on my rmants live and study , the Midwt. The fdgs of my rearch led me to nclu that llege-aged gay men, particularly those studyg at a small liberal arts llege, face a variety of challeng different om those their heterosexual unterparts face and that the men have many ways of pg wh the difficulti. Over the urse of the semter, I intified several aspects of my rmants liv as gay stunts that they found challengg.
Fally, thgs that are nsired to be general issu faced by all gay men are addrsed at the end of the sectn, cludg: fear of hate crim, difficulti wh people’s relig beliefs (both the beliefs of gay men and those of the people they teract wh), stereotypg, and the rise of the “GBF” (or gay bt iend), as well as self-acceptance and the popular view that homosexualy is a choice. One of the first, and possibly biggt, challeng a gay man fac is the cisn to “e out”, or reveal his sexual orientatn to his fay, iends, and acquatanc.
AN ILLTRATED GUI TO REGNIZG YOUR GAY STEREOTYP
Though there is the mon ia that g out has to be a specific s down talk, there are many other ways gay men choose to munite their sexual orientatn, which vary greatly based upon the ntext which a person out. Simon mentned that his boss and many of his workers disvered he was gay bee they heard him mentn durg a nversatn wh another worker. This rmal way of g out is credibly popular wh my rmants (and, acrdg to them, other gay men who are already out wh their fay and iends), and many new iends and acquatanc get a more sual treatment than if they had known Simon or Rorich when they were first explorg their new sexual orientatn.
Comg out is a b easier for Rorich bee his meanor more closely nforms to the mon stereotypil perceptn of how a gay man behav.
Simon mentned when he began the procs of his “big” g out (the first time he began publicly prentg himself as a gay man, but after he had e out to his close iends and fay) and he was meetg new people, he would drop hts about his orientatn durg a game lled “20 qutns”.
GAY GETS BETTER (AND MORE TARGETED): SAY HELLO TO THE NEXT GENERATN OF GRDR
In this way, he would gui the person to the realizatn that he was gay, but he wouldn’t tell him or her himself. He would make this new person ask if he was gay before he would nfirm he . Sce he behav a more stereotypil way, he says that most people ually assume that he is gay.
For example, one of Simon’s aterny brothers disvered that he was gay bee he was helpg Simon ed one of his papers for a class which he was discsg his sexual orientatn. Social media provis a new platform on which gay men n munite their sexual orientatn and s e seems to be prevalent among llege-aged gay men.
The act of puttg his sexual orientatn onle n be an extremely important symbolic step for llege-aged gay men. One of the most strsful tim a gay man’s life is wag to see how someone will rpond to him after g out.
WHICH GAY TRIBE DO YOU BELONG TO?
In orr to intify the range of rpons that gay men face, I had Rorich and Simon participate a ee listg exercise which they listed all the possible ways someone might react upon disverg a gay man’s sexual orientatn.
TWKS, JOCKS, AND BEARS, OH MY! DIFFERG SUBCULTURAL APPEARANCE INTIFITNS AMONG GAY MEN AND THEIR ASSOCIATED EATG DISORR PSYCHOPATHOLOGY☆
He said ’s jt strange when a person acts like nothg has changed even though both of them (the gay man and the person they have e out to) know thgs are not the same. It n also be a bad ia for members of a gay muny this limed to date each other bee of the potential for drama. In orr to illtrate this, Rorich reunted a story of a iend who dated another gay man on mp that end a bad break up.