An open letter to my fellow whe gay cis men: there should be no "returng to normal" after this.
Contents:
- GAY CULTURE HAS GROWN TOXIC WH UNCHECKED PRIVILEGE. IT'S TIME FOR TO RET
- WHE GAY PRIVILEGE EXISTS ALL YEAR, BUT IS PARTICULARLY HURTFUL DURG PRI
- I ED TO ENVY GAY MEN WHO ULD PASS FOR STRAIGHT – NOW I REALISE MIGHT BE A CURSE
- DO GAY MEN HAVE A STAKE MALE PRIVILEGE? THE POLIL ENOMY OF GAY MEN'S CONTRADICTORY RELATNSHIP TO FEMISM
- THE PRIVILEGE OF BEG A GAY WHE MALE
- WHAT IS ‘WHE GAY PRIVILEGE’?
GAY CULTURE HAS GROWN TOXIC WH UNCHECKED PRIVILEGE. IT'S TIME FOR TO RET
* gay male privilege *
But even though the nversatns that muted this lumn for six weeks are nowhere close to beg over, I do feel like some thgs that me up durg that time of ntemplatn are worth sayg now — particularly to my fellow whe gay cis out more stori on LGBTQ+ ins and activistsHowever, the ghost of Larry Kramer very much remaed my own head as I ma my way through a Pri month unlike any other. I spent a few quiet afternoons readg his 1978 but novel Faggots, a satiril (yet clearly tobgraphil) look at the liv of gay men 1970s New York Cy that he wrote jt before AIDS ma him a figurehead of Amerin activism. Followg a man his late 30s (based on Kramer himself) who is seekg out a lovg, long-term relatnship a sea of hedonism, the novel has a clear msage: gay men need to start lovg each other stead of beg so obssed wh gettg fucked up and (lerally and figuratively) fuckg each other.
- Larry Kramer his but novelUpon publitn, Faggots was dismissed by many as puranil and self-loathg for s cricism of gay men's obssn wh vany, promiscuy and recreatnal dg e. And while, on one level, the book is a wild (if at tim problematic) wdow to an era of gay culture 40 years the past, also felt like had a lot to say about gay culture today.
What even do mean to say "gay culture"?
WHE GAY PRIVILEGE EXISTS ALL YEAR, BUT IS PARTICULARLY HURTFUL DURG PRI
Whe gay privilege exists all year, but is particularly tratg durg Pri * gay male privilege *
In mastream gay media, the phrase almost always refers to a fairly specific subset of the LGBTQ "muny" largely ma up of whe gay cis men — even though many of the battl won around queer rights were fought by people of lour, trans and genr-nonnformg folks, and queer women, and fact the morn Pri movement self was large part iated by Black trans women.
If an imprsn of a monolhic "gay culture" fed by such a homogeneo mographic exists, is bee whe gay cis men have until very recently domated mastream reprentatn unr the LGBTQ umbrella and have, general, been hand a level of privilege the last that is wildly disproportnate to any other mographic unr said umbrella. (Prophetilly enough, Fire Island is where the climax of Faggots — Kramer's exriatn of "gay culture" — tak place. The panmic sentially shut down all of social gay culture, relievg me of prsur to participate .
Gay bars were shuttered and, unls you were beg a horribly irrponsible person, Grdr was no more.
I ED TO ENVY GAY MEN WHO ULD PASS FOR STRAIGHT – NOW I REALISE MIGHT BE A CURSE
Bee my gayns is obv, I faced savage homophobic bullyg growg up and I’ve therefore always found hard to empathise wh men who are able to hi their sexualy. Perhaps I was wrong * gay male privilege *
When was the last time I actually had a good time at gay bar full of people I have fely spoken to on social media or apps but who act like I'm pletely sane when I se or say hello person? In analyzg the show's pictn of young gay men livg San Francis, wrer Daniel Wenger diagnos what he terms the "new gay sadns": an entire generatn of urban, privileged gay men who seem to have no clue what they're lookg for or who they are. Largely born the 1980s, they are the earlit wave of a "post-Stonewall, post-plague, post-activist" generatn of gays — "too old to have brought a boy to the prom and too young to have nursed a fantasy of nng away to an urban gay utopia, " Wenger explas.
DO GAY MEN HAVE A STAKE MALE PRIVILEGE? THE POLIL ENOMY OF GAY MEN'S CONTRADICTORY RELATNSHIP TO FEMISM
"Gay culture" should learn the same lson: "back to normal" is not enough.
THE PRIVILEGE OF BEG A GAY WHE MALE
Queeri5 pneerg LGBTQ Canadian films you n watch for ee right nowI've seen many of my fellow whe gay cis men seemgly rise to the ocsn by retweetg Black and Indigeno voic, gog to ralli and vowg to te themselv on how to tly be anti-racist (though how performative that is some s is unclear). Which of the gays do you want to be? Rettg "gay culture" will require fightg back agast entrenched social prsur and expectatns of gay cis men — and llg them out when they perpetuate, even passively, any form of discrimatory dialogue.
WHAT IS ‘WHE GAY PRIVILEGE’?
Larry Kramer didn't give a sh what people thought of him, particularly other gay men. And was large part bee of that attu that he uld lead AIDS activists through a rpt and homophobic system to ga accs to the dgs that ma possible for our generatn to have the liv that we do. So let's thk long and hard about how we've been choosg to live the fuckg bolt cutters, gays.
This whe gay privilege exists year-round, but is particularly tratg durg archects and elrs of the movement have been all but erased. This whe gay privilege exists year-round, but is particularly tratg durg muni stggle some way wh race, and the LGBTQ muny is no different. Jt as the movement for LGBTQ rights has been whewashed, so has Pri month often felt like a whe, gay-centered event — far removed om the lears of the Stonewall a recent article for BET, I discs how the Stonewall rts should be nsired an important part of Black history.
And yet Roland Emmerlich’s 2015 movie "Stonewall" shamelsly downplayed the role Black queer people played leadg the rts — gog so far as havg a whe gay man throw the first brick, stead of Marsha P. Unfortunately, when HIV stopped beg known as a primarily whe gay epimic, began to feel more and more like an more articl like this? This actn was met wh anger om whe gay men who felt the flag reprented uny spe sk lor — a particularly tone-af fense given that Philalphia's gay bars had recently bee a hotbed for racism.