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Is gay sexuality going back in the closet?
chron.com ^

Posted on 02/21/2004 9:42:10 PM PST by chance33_98

Is gay sexuality going back in the closet?

By PATRICK MOORE

The courts have set in motion the real possibility of gay marriage in the United States. HIV treatment, at least for those with health insurance, has vastly improved. Gay characters are regularly featured on network television. It would seem that the golden age of gay life in the United States has arrived. However, there is a growing sense among progressive gay thinkers that these provisional victories have come with a high cost. What has the gay community given up to reach this point?

In its 2003 decision striking down sodomy laws, the Supreme Court ruled that private consensual gay sex was constitutionally protected. But by the time the court ruled, gay sexuality had already moved beyond privacy; it had become invisible to the point of extinction. Both in terms of portrayals of gay men in the media and the rush to embrace traditional relationships as defined by heterosexual marriage, the gay community is discarding the very sexuality that the Supreme Court has validated.

Yet gay history is built on sexuality. In the 1970s, gay men purposefully alienated both straight Americans and lesbians by pioneering a culture of radical sexual abandon. Promiscuity and sexual experimentation were not merely tolerated, they were seen as political acts, crucial markers of gay male identity. That separatist era of sexual radicalism has now been dismissed as merely a period of excess leading to AIDS. In the current rush to assimilation, gay men have become ashamed of what is a vibrant legacy -- which, along with revolutionary movements like feminism and civil rights, played a valuable role in expanding American culture -- replacing the role of sexual provocateur with nonthreatening, nonsexual stereotypes.

This sexual disavowal is clearly seen in television shows such as Will & Grace and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. These are essentially homosexual minstrel shows, in which gay men excel at being "the best friend" and "the style-maker" but are stripped of sexuality. Gay sex is nothing more than a running joke in these scenarios. The handsome and successful Will of Will & Grace rarely has a date, let alone sex, and is presented as incapable of having a relationship with anyone other than his straight girlfriends. The "buddies" of Queer Eye mince in front of their straight objects of affection, carefully stroking their arms and offering up nonthreatening style tips that are presented as the core of gay culture. Apologists for these "step-'n'-fetch-it" routines remind us that it is, after all, only TV. Yet many gay people mistake what is a stereotyped visibility for an indicator of acceptance and respect.

Pop culture is not the only sector where one sees indicators of an increasingly chaste gay culture. Ironically, the gay political establishment has used the Supreme Court's legalization of gay sex as leverage to fight for the most conventional (and, some might say, least sexual) of heterosexual institutions -- marriage.

Marriage is a problematic goal in terms of gay sexuality. It doesn't exactly deny sexuality, but it does seek to tame it. Yet the monogamous ideal enshrined in marriage is a challenge regardless of one's sexual orientation. With the Census Bureau reporting that divorce rates are climbing and new marriages decreasing, it seems that gays are fighting to get into a burning house. If the legalization of gay marriage is achieved, will homosexuals be further marginalized if they can't or won't conform to a heterosexual ideal that even straight people can't meet? Careful polling would help answer the question of whether marriage is even a widely shared goal within the gay community.

Many gays in the United States will breathe a sigh of relief at the idea that gay life is no longer defined solely by sex. And marriage may be a noble goal for some. But in redefining what it means to be gay in America, the gay community itself is on the verge of marginalizing those who refuse to conform to a system of heterosexual morality. The logic underlying a desexualized gay assimilation is understandable -- straight Americans can identify with gay people who fulfill the roles of spouse, friend, parent, caretaker, soldier and consumer. But what does the future hold for gay Americans who don't have an interest in or the ability to play these roles according to the script? Leaving them isolated is too high a price for assimilation.

Real acceptance for gay people will come not through media stereotypes or wedding fantasies but through the insistence that gay people be seen as they really are. That will mean that gay television characters (beyond the rarefied demographics of HBO and Showtime) will be seen having the range of sexual and loving relationships that straight characters experience. Even more difficult will be the task of creating a gay political agenda that can embrace the choice of marriage without dismissing those who choose a nonmonogamous path. Sex is never an easy subject in the United States, but gay Americans should not shy away from it as a vibrant part of their legacy.

Moore's Beyond Shame: Reclaiming the Abandoned History of Radical Gay Sexuality was published this month by Beacon Press.


TOPICS: Editorial
KEYWORDS: blueoyster; fabulous; homosexualagenda; overexposed; str8eye4thequeerguy; weresickofit
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1 posted on 02/21/2004 9:42:10 PM PST by chance33_98
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To: chance33_98
"Is gay sexuality going back in the closet?"

Please God let this be true.
2 posted on 02/21/2004 9:44:34 PM PST by CzarNicky (The problem with bad ideas is that they seemed like good ideas at the time.)
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To: chance33_98
See this for why the gays need to go back in the closet:

Judaism’s Sexual Revolution: Why Judaism (and then Christianity) Rejected Homosexuality

3 posted on 02/21/2004 9:45:24 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach (The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States - and war is what they got!!!!)
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To: chance33_98
It should be in the closet, or at least in the privacy of one's house.

It's none of my business what they do. I want to STAY that way.

4 posted on 02/21/2004 9:45:51 PM PST by Dan from Michigan ("You know it don't come easy, the road of the gypsy" - Iron Eagle)
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To: chance33_98
Many gays in the United States will breathe a sigh of relief at the idea that gay life is no longer defined solely by sex.

Well then what defines it? That's what it is by definition, it's a way to describe the sexual activities or preferences of homoSEXuals.

If two guys are living together, and they carry purses, and do needlepoint, but they don't have sex with each other, are they gay? No, just effeminate.

Trying to separate gayness from sexuality is like separating government from politics.

5 posted on 02/21/2004 9:50:50 PM PST by ovrtaxt (I'll start watching NASCAR when they start running figure 8s.)
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To: CzarNicky
Yet gay history is built on sexuality

That, of course, is the whole point of homosexuality... sex... duh..

6 posted on 02/21/2004 9:55:45 PM PST by GeronL (http://www.ArmorforCongress.com......................Send a Freeper to Congress!)
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To: ovrtaxt
Hey now, I like to cross-stitch on occassion and I am not gay...
7 posted on 02/21/2004 9:56:12 PM PST by chance33_98 (Check out profile page for banners, if you need one freepmail me and I will make one for you)
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To: ovrtaxt
will breathe a sigh of relief at the idea that gay life is no longer defined solely by sex

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

hahahahahahahahahahahaha

*breathe*

hahahahaahahahahhaha

ludi-crusty....

absolutely stupid

8 posted on 02/21/2004 9:57:31 PM PST by GeronL (http://www.ArmorforCongress.com......................Send a Freeper to Congress!)
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To: chance33_98
Well, okay. But ONLY because you have pictures of your beautiful wife on your home page.
9 posted on 02/21/2004 9:59:36 PM PST by ovrtaxt (I'll start watching NASCAR when they start running figure 8s.)
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To: GeronL
the Department of Energy Gay, Lesbian or Bisexual Employees (DOE GLOBE) home page BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA
10 posted on 02/21/2004 10:00:09 PM PST by chance33_98 (Check out profile page for banners, if you need one freepmail me and I will make one for you)
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To: chance33_98
"Is gay sexuality going back in the closet?"




No.
11 posted on 02/21/2004 10:00:52 PM PST by Rightone
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To: chance33_98
LOL
12 posted on 02/21/2004 10:02:13 PM PST by GeronL (http://www.ArmorforCongress.com......................Send a Freeper to Congress!)
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To: chance33_98
Someday we may have a Department of Gay Affairs.

*snicker*

http://rinohunter.blogspot.com

13 posted on 02/21/2004 10:03:13 PM PST by GeronL (http://www.ArmorforCongress.com......................Send a Freeper to Congress!)
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To: chance33_98
Marriage is a problematic goal in terms of gay sexuality.

And yet, a constitutional right!

Phooey!

14 posted on 02/21/2004 10:06:52 PM PST by dr_lew
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To: ovrtaxt
My wife? That's me in drag ;)
15 posted on 02/21/2004 10:09:45 PM PST by chance33_98 (Check out profile page for banners, if you need one freepmail me and I will make one for you)
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To: chance33_98
Well you're a hottie, big boy!
16 posted on 02/21/2004 10:11:15 PM PST by ovrtaxt (I'll start watching NASCAR when they start running figure 8s.)
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To: chance33_98
The author is a moron. Homosexuality IS defined by sexual behvior. Homosexual marriage is a marriage based on sexual behvior. Homosexuality only offers sexual behvior.

Nothing more.

It should be removed from schools and put in a coffin not a closet.
17 posted on 02/21/2004 10:17:12 PM PST by longtermmemmory (Vote!)
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To: GeronL
Department of Gay Affairs?

The Feinstein will demand a department of Female Orgasm Entitlement.

18 posted on 02/21/2004 10:18:22 PM PST by longtermmemmory (Vote!)
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To: longtermmemmory
I am sure she will, but she is one of those women who just have it...
19 posted on 02/21/2004 10:21:42 PM PST by GeronL (http://www.ArmorforCongress.com......................Send a Freeper to Congress!)
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To: chance33_98
I have a good friend who enjoys knitting ! He and his wife raise their own sheep for the wool. Not my kind of hobby, but one that is very satisfying and creative.
20 posted on 02/21/2004 10:39:30 PM PST by Edgewood Pilot
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