Certainly in Wyoming, forward movement has occurred in the five years since Matthew Shepard’s death. That the people of that state have questioned and continue to evaluate just what they want to stand for is something worth celebrating. That high profile statesmen like Alan Simpson and Gerald Ford have taken an active role in the matter of state’s gay right earns my greatest admiration — and, yes, their stand makes them statesmen in my book. But read between the lines and you’ll see gay individuals who cannot yet come out to their families or in the workplace and you’ll see a state not yet ready to grasp parity between gays and straights under the law. But here I have to remind myself that Rome wasn’t built in a day, to keep my eyes on the prize.
I know, I know. Cliched writing. So what. Sometimes cliches work and I need them because when I read articles like this one, the pockets of skepticism that exist in my heart feel deep and raw. I’ll be the first to admit that these coincidences have yet to be proved to be a bone fide strategy in action, but if it’s for real, I won’t be voting Republican in the next national election. As far as I’m concerned, marching out homophobia is no different than marching out racism or religious intolerance. That it’s used to secure money and endorsement from the fundie right adds insult to fatal injury.
As far as I’m concerned, the deafening silence from pundits and party officials that’s greeted Andrew Sullivan’s latest screed tells all. Although readers’ responses show a lively exchange of opinions, I’m not banking on mine or my parents’ generations to change things for the better. I’m banking on the younger generations — those bright, young faces I saw in the print version of Time magazine — to change things. Them and countless straight kids who aren’t threatened by differences the way older generations are.
Onward.
On being anonymous, an interesting survey on the hidden identities of authors. And another journalism claims those of us who write erotically are rendered anonymous as a side affect from our loathing of child porn. Sure, we rarely get to share the same book shelves as mainstream and literary fiction, but SF/Fantasy/Horrors authors can say the same thing. Hell, at my local Borders, African American authors can say the same thing; hence, I’m not sure Victoria’s dismissal of genre writing helps any.
So what’s the difference between genre and literature? Sometimes it’s clearly conventional, that’s true. Sometimes the fine line can’t be determined objectively, as in the case of Hanne Blank’s writing, noted in the article. To me, the threshold will be crossed when Hanne’s erotic writing is as at home at The New Yorker as it would be at Brownworth’s On Our Backs. And thank you, Victoria, for continuing the dialogue.
Oh boy, The Voice is having fun this week. Or at least I am, reading its Best Of selections. Try clicking on its various bests under Bodily Pleasures and thank you pornmeister Johnny Maldoro for the checklist of peeps. Although I’ve done Show World already, I hope the rest will still be in business next time I visit.
The Voice, however, gives short notice to the French film, Porn Theatre. A quick look at another review reveals that, like the Korean film Lies, maybe too much explicit sex makes for tedious viewing for the average moviegoer, especially if that moviegoer is “porn uninitiated.” But I’d like to pose that another element is at work: an ignorance about porn theater culture, a culture which is just about dead here in America thanks to home video and urban redevelopment. In those theaters, both straight and gay men routinely and regularly gathered to watch straight porn and cruise each other. However casual the sex might’ve been on the surface, relationships formed between these regulars, some of them lasting for years. For both proof and a better understanding of this culture, Samuel R. Delany’s Times Square Red, Times Square Blue is required reading.
Of course, social conservatives will say, “See! This is what’s immoral about gays! This is why they shouldn’t marry.” I’ll just point out that plenty of straight men frequented porn theaters and large numbers of them were happy to be serviced by cruising bottoms and you know what? Nobody’s denying them the right to marry. But that’s how institutionalized privilege works, isn’t it?
Finally, check out the new links on the left of my template, including a review of Laura Antoniou’s latest novel.
