Global Gay Nation > Gay Identity - Queer as Volk?
Is Christopher Street turning fuddy-duddy?
vanrozenheim:
Rain - thank you very much for the very interesting piece. :hug:
As you have written, largely the transfer of knowledge and culture between generation does not function well, if at all. The AIDS trauma seems nearly forgotten, and from what I understand, many of the youngsters are lacking any perception of what has happened to an entire generation just some 15-25 years ago.
Write, write, write! And gather your writings into a book, so there are no regrets later on omitting to download a precious piece.
berto:
--- Quote from: "Rain" ---I hope I don't come across as the typical New Yorker.
--- End quote ---
I dunno from "typical New Yorker"... but you come across as a fine ambassador for your city, with a deep respect and pride in the town, without it being simply mindless boosterism.
--- Quote from: "vanrozenheim" ---Write, write, write! And gather your writings into a book, so there are no regrets later on omitting to download a precious piece.
--- End quote ---
I simply could *not* agree more.
vanrozenheim:
From this interesting piece on assimilation:
--- Quote ---Gay bar owners routinely call for the arrest of homeless people, many of them queer youth, for getting in the way of happy hour. Zephyr Realty, a gay-owned real estate company, advises its clients on how best to evict long-term tenants, many of them seniors, people with HIV/AIDS and disabled people. Gay political consultants mastermind the election of anti-poor, pro-development candidates over and over and over.
In 1998, wealthy gay Castro residents (don’t forget lesbians and straight people!) fought against a queer youth shelter because they feared it would get in the way of “community property values.” They warned that a queer youth shelter would bring prostitution and drug-dealing to the neighborhood. For a moment, let’s leave aside the absurdity of a wealthy gay neighborhood, obviously already a prime destination for prostitutes of a certain gender and drug-dealing of only the best substances, worrying about the wrong kind of prostitutes (the ones in the street) and the wrong kind of drug dealers (the ones who don’t drive Mercedes) arriving in their whitewashed gayborhood.
--- End quote ---
Thjere is much more in the article.
Rain:
--- Quote ---What is sad about the Castro (and similar gay neighborhoods across the country and around the world), and indicative of what gay people do with even a little bit of power, is that these same smiling gay men have failed to build community for queers (or anyone) outside their social groups.
--- End quote ---
In college I was taught that gay liberation and class struggle were bound together in the achievement of mutual goals. Gay liberation has never been the fight of gays with money. Gays with money can buy their liberation simply by purchasing acreage or a lofty enough apartment to insulate and isolate them from the maddening hordes. I assume that the folks that staged the Stonewall Riots were not very well off financially. And I suppose it wasn't until fairly recently that a class of gay bourgeoisie has had sufficient clout and numbers to oppress its own kind.
Money changes everything.
Rain:
Come to think of it...that article is worthy of an entire semester's analysis in a Queer Criticism class.
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