I think you’re misunderstanding what culture means to me. To me gay culture isn’t Logo. Gay culture isn’t pop music and glitter. Gay culture, to me, is the experiences we share as a community that binds us together. It’s the common belief in equality and the sense of family that comes with struggling together. I reject the notions that gay culture is anything outside of that because anything outside of those experiences is superficial and meaningless. Yes, it’s great and all and has historic meaning and what have you, but it’s a little ridiculous to create a culture for a group as diverse as the LGBT community and have it remain exclusive to those who don’t engage in the mainstream activities.
Another topic I could go hours on is the amount of alcohol in the community and how damaging it is. Every gay pride event has a beer bust. Most are situated within gay bars or heavily associated with one. Historically speaking, that was the only place for gays to socialize publicly for a long time. But from an outsiders perspective, a gay pride rally looks an awful lot like a bunch of queers getting drunk. What does that say about us? Alcohol isn’t inherently bad, but seriously every event, fundraiser, drag show or whatever is drenched in the stuff. Beer companies even go out of their way to specifically advertise to us. How do yo think that makes a kid who’s never even ingested alcohol once feel about his community?
In brute honesty, it’s awkward as hell and a little embarrassing.
So yeah, I think it’s fair to say that glitter and glitz is superficial and the struggle is our culture. I guess my issue is the fact that they get the forefront while the shared experiences often get ignored.
Yes.
That’s because straight people think glitter is fun so they can deal with that and they’d far rather deal with glitter and the ‘fun’ parts of gay culture than anything else. Actual suffering caused by institutional homophobia that will require seismic changes in the law, culture and attitude of an entire society? Not so easy or pleasant to engage with.
